Paranormal Fortress 2
by Zilkenian
Summary: Thinking he could have a "normal" life working for TF Industries, Demoman left his paranormal hunting back, but when a strange creature attack in the middle of the night, his senses wake up again in order to stop it. What he never expected was to get help from the loudest member of the team.
1. In the shadows - part 1

**Am I the only one that thinks Demoman needs more love? And that he's perfect for spooky stories? No? Okay! Because he's featuring, along with Scout, this story! Hope you like it.**

...

It was a full moon night. The silence around the base invited anyone to just relax and have a moment of peace. Demoman, who usually would drink until he fell flat on the floor, found that night perfect for some reading. He decided to go outside, sit on a crate far from the noisy team, and read his book about strange and paranormal creatures under the moonlight. No alcohol or smoke, just him and the peaceful wild around, in a temperature better than perfect for anyone to spend outside. And as he sat there, alone, reading his book, he didn't hear the light footsteps that were getting closer and closer to him. He was so focused on his reading he didn't realize he had company, and it wasn't until that other person opened his mouth that he noticed him.

"Yo Demo, watcha doing here all by yourself?"

Demoman sighed, and closed the book. He just wanted a moment of solitude for once, but no, even that was denied from him, so he decided to try and shoo away the kid. He looked up from the closed book to Scout, and he was about to tell him to go away, when he saw that Scout was looking at the book between interested and a bit scared. Of course, everyone knew Scout had a big mouth and not the best courage, so maybe some encouragement to stay away while he was reading was a better idea than just tell him to "eff off".

"Nothing lad, just reading about creatures that lurk around at night, you know, those who get you when you don't expect them. One has to be prepared for everything, and I'm sure at least one of them is around here..."

Seeing the worried face in Scout was more than satisfying, and maybe with that the boy would let him be. But instead, the opposite happened: Scout was actually interested in that matter.

"Yeah man! I mean, I've seen weird things around here lately! That's why I was going to ask you about them, because you know, I'm brave an all, but you can't just punch those things and win, no man, those things have magic I tell ya. You need something much better to take them down"

Well, the lad had a point there, he wasn't as stupid as the Demoman thought. Still, that was his reading moment, and he wanted it to be alone and on his own. Maybe changing the tactic he would make him go away.

"Alright lad, why are you here? And don't tell me is because of paranormal creatures"

"But it IS! I mean, I saw the other da-"

Demoman pinched his nose, closing his eyes for a moment, before answering.

"Look Scout, I want some peace okay? I don't think you saw any of this around here. Even paranormal creatures need living beings to live, and we are in the middle of nowhere, in a stinky base with a murky lake between two buildings. So go back inside"

"But dude, I swear I saw someth-"

"Scout! Go-back-inside!"

To make his point, Demoman pointed at the base with his finger, while looking angry. He didn't want to be bothered at that hour at all, even with his focus ruined already. Scout's shoulders lowered in defeat, and then he raised both hand saying things like 'nobody listens!' and 'we all will be dead by morning' while walking inside the RED base. Once the boy was out of sight, Demoman returned his attention back to the book. He was in the page where the book described the 'Shadow Walker', a terrifying creature that would get inside somene's shadow and stay there, draining the energy of the host until it fell into a coma, and then go onto another host. It wasn't deadly on its own, but the person in a coma would never wake up again, no matter what.

The only way to know if someone had a Shadow Walker in his shadow was to look closely at it: the SW was alive somehow, so it couldn't stay still for too long, making the shadow move on its own from time to time without the person moving. That was a clear indicator that a SW was in there.

It was a dangerous creature, and Demoman had seen one of those years ago, when he was trying to hunt down creatures just for the fun of it. He still remembered when he went out hunting those things down with his friend, a professional of these things, older than him, who would teach him how to catch every single one of them. Too bad he needed money and had to accept this RED job, but he was sure when he got back, he would go out hunting again.

He then thought about the idea of having one around the base: would Respawn fix the energy drained, or it would just fix the body? Probably just the body, as he was more than sure that none of the companies had thought about the astral side of any life, like soul and energy.

He decided to stop thinking and resumed on his reading.

...

Once he went back into his room, Scout closed the door with a loud noise, making sure everyone knew he was angry. Of course, nobody would give a damn about it, and he knew it. Only for being the youngest he was the most ignored of the team. Yeah, he was loud and noisy sometimes, but that didn't mean he never took things seriously when needed. And now he could bet anything that something weird was in the base. He decided to give a rest to his thoughts and go to bed; dinner wasn't that necessary anyways, he could get a bigger breakfast in the morning to compensate for it. He turned on the small lamp on his desk and sat on his bed. Putting both hand on his face he tried to clear his thoughts.

"Now they'll think I'm crazy...great"

He opened one eye, and looking around through two of his fingers, he saw his shadow con the wall.

"Weird"

He stood up, going towards the wall. For some reason, even if his lamp was a still light, his shadow was moving like it was projected by a candle. He turned around to see the lamp just normal. Looking back at the wall, he saw the shadow was also back to normal. Scout sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, taking his baseball cap in the process.

"Man I'm hallucinating. I really need to get some good sleep"

With that, he decided that his normal clothes were okay to sleep in, and taking off his shoes, he went into his bed and closed his eyes. Shortly after, he was asleep.

...

The next day, everyone woke up ready for the fight of the day. Each one of them prepared, after breakfast, in the supply room, where they talked to each other about the plan for the day's battle. Strange enough, Scout wasn't talking as much as usual, something everyone was grateful for: a day without the brat yelling and telling the world how amazing he was. But after they finished setting the day's plan, Medic couldn't help but look at the boy: he looked paler than usual and had a tired expression all over his face. Medic decided to check on him later, perhaps he had developed a strange illness that he could investigate, but for now, the important matter was the fight.

As the count came to zero, and the Administrator's voice announced the start of the event, Medic ran out following Heavy, with Demoman and Soldier close by. They had to capture BLU's briefcase in order to win, as always. They had decided to leave Engineer behind with his sentry guarding their own briefcase along with Pyro, while Soldier, Demoman and Heavy went for the attack with Medic as their healing backup. Sniper and Spy would distract them, one shooting from far and the other backstabbing and saping as much as possible, and once the coast was clear, they were counting on Scout to get the briefcase and run towards their base. They had to admit that they always relied on Scout to do that part of the job, since even being a talking-to-much brat, he was the fastest little thing they've ever seen.

As the attacking group managed to get a clear path for Scout to sneak in they realized the boy wasn't around, or at least in plain view. Medic decided to use the earpiece everyone whore to get in contact with him, so he brought his finger in his ear to activate it.

"Herr Scout, you may want to go inside now and get the briefcase, or maybe you need help with that?"

The rest snickered a bit even when they kept shooting at the enemies. Medic waited for an answer, but upon hearing none, he tried again.

"Herr Scout? Did you hit yourself and fell unconscious? In that case, please wake up and move"

This time he got an answer, but not exactly what he expected. He was waiting a retort from the younger man, inspiring some anger in Scout so he could go faster and fetch the damn thing, but instead the answer came in a tired, darker than usual voice.

"On it Doc...I'm just having some...troubles around here..."

"And what kind of troubles are those?"

"'m tired...and I don't know why"

Medic sighed. In one side he was getting tired of the boy's behaviour for not putting all effort into the battle, but on other side he had a few questions in his head, specially when everyone knew Scout was never tired.

"Did you eat properly this morning?"

"Yeah...and slept a lot...look, I'm in the sewers...I'll try get it from there, alright?"

"Alright Scout"

That last answer got some concerned voice from the Medic. Yes he was a sadistic son of a...but he was still a doctor, and he needed his team healthy. If Scout was experiencing some sort of illness, he would have to find out about it and cure whatever it was before it got everyone else. He told the others to stay in their position and keep the BLU team away from Scout, but Demoman had other ideas. Excusing himself and leaving before the rest could say anything, he went into the sewers, following Scout. Something in that situation smelled fishy, his hunting instincts were telling him so, and he wanted to know what it was.

He didn't have to run a lot before finding him. In the small room that formed the corner of the sewers was Scout, sitting in a corner inside the place, his head down and ones arm over his knee, while the other was just left there hanging like a doll's arm. He even didn't notice when Demoman came in until his shoulder was touched. He slowly turned his head up, all dizzy.

"Dude...told ya...I was gonna get it...you don't have...to rush me that much...geez"

Demoman frowned

. That was an odd behaviour, but they were in the middle of the fight and they needed that briefcase. He made a quick decision.

"You're not well lad, just stay here and rest a bit. The Doc got an uber, so the attacking team will get the case, alright?"

"No way, man..." Scout retorted "You'll rub...this in my face...for the rest of my life..."

Demoman chuckled a bit. Yep, that was Scout's behaviour alright.

"Look, we don't always have good days alright? We all understand, just stay here and rest. We'll get the briefcase and finish this round, then the Doc will take a look on you and see what happens"

Scout looked a bit afraid at that, but his tiredness was winning over him, so he just nodded. With a small 'alright' he let his head down again, and Demoman took that as his cue to leave. BLU was busy defending his base anyways, so no one would even try to come around this place; it was usually used when attacking, and today they had the upper hand. Demoman would come back later to get Scout and take him back into the RED base before the next round in the afternoon. He went upstairs where Medic and Heavy were already causing havoc amongst the enemy team, and Soldier was being the crazy bastard he always was. When Medic saw him he asked for Scout, to what Demoman answered with a simply 'he's having a bad day'. Medic nodded and continued with Heavy.

A few minutes later and an used uber, they had the briefcase dancing into their own base. They didn't have any problem at all to win the round, and as Soldier, Heavy and Medic were going back, Demoman went down into the sewers to fetch Scout.

Once he arrived, he found the boy in the same position he left him. This concerned him a bit, but of course he would never let the little brat know it; he would be damned if Scout knew someone was actually caring, he would rub it in their faces for a long time. But this time something was odd. His instincts were kicking at his conscious self, warning him of something. And then he realized it: Scout and him weren't the only ones in the room. He quickly went next to Scout, shaking his arm to wake him up.

"Scout! Hey lad, wake up!"

No matter how much he moved him, the boy didn't answer back or moved. Demoman looked around, trying to find the source of whatever was weird in that small room, until he remembered something. The night before, while he was reading, Scout said something:

'Yeah man! I mean, I've seen weird things around here lately!'

Demoman looked back at the boy, and that's when he realized what his instincts were trying to tell him. How could he have been so blind? Now he saw it in all its glory.

Scout was right, something weird was around there. More specifically, something weird was in Scout's shadow, moving it in weird ways while the boy was still.

"Oh no..."

Something called a Shadow Walker.


	2. In the shadows - part 2

**Second part of the first chapter of this story, and also the preparation for our duo...trio? Of paranormal hunters! Ouh yeah...**

...

He didn't have much time from that point. Demoman took out the chain his mentor gave him years ago, which protects you from creatures to some extend: it would keep the SW from going any further in taking Scout's energy. Demoman took Scout in his arms and ran towards his base through the other sewer. Once he reached the upper level and went into the respawn room that connects with their quarters he called for Medic. Lucky for them, Medic didn't lock himself up in his lab yet, and he was there pretty quickly.

"Aha! It was a strange illness after all!"

Medic was too excited for Demoman's taste. Shaking his head in disbelief, he gave Scout to Medic, who found himself carrying the young man before he could say no.

"Keep him in a very iluminated room. No mater what, don't let him in the dark, you hear me?"

"Uh...sure" Medic was clearly confused at those demands, but he needed light to explore his patient anyways, so he agreed "and then what?"

Demoman was about to leave, when he looked back for a moment in order to answer.

"I have to find a way to take that thing out!"

And then he ran off to his room. Medic didn't need anything else. Something inside Scout? Well that did need to be studied! Then again, it would have left a mark here or there to get inside, but Scout looked alright, no wounds, and he was sure his medigun was the only thing that could heal 100% any wound on the battlefield, unless the boy went through Respawn.

In any case, he headed towards his lab. He set Scout on his medical table in order to inspect him properly, when he noticed the extra chain Scout was wearing. He took a closer look at it, trying to see what exactly was wrong with it, because something was wrong with it. That cold chill running down his spine could only mean something. The worst thing in the world for a scientist and a doctor...

"Magic"

He stepped back from the table. Yes, that was a magical artifact, he always had an extra sense to feel the darn things, that's why he avoided any kind of creature that lurked around in Halloween; he HATED magic. Everything in this world was explained with science, not thingamajics created by fools. Still, if Demoman trusted him to deal with this it was probably because he felt that Medic was the only one who would stay calm in this situation. So he focused in getting what the Demoman asked for: lights.

He turned on the light on the medical table which, along with the one on the ceiling, already made two shadows. Then he took a small lamp and turned it on as well. That projected three shadows. Then he took a flashlight out of his desk, and put it on the table, turning it on. Four shadows.

Medic stopped there, not knowing if those were enough lights or not, but as we was trying to get more light sources from around the room, he felt another cold chill run down his spine, but this time, something touching his shoulder made him look towards Scout. What he saw made him prefer that the evening whould have been a normal one.

Sitting on the medical table, with his legs going over the edge of it, was Scout looking at him, with black and red eyes, looking somewhat expresionless. The Doctor looked down at himself, and saw a shadow going up his body. Of course...

One of the lights was projecting the shadow towards him, and there was no other light to counter it: whatever was in Scout was free to go through any spot where a light projected his shadow, and no other light could stop it. He only had a few seconds to think about it before being tossed against a wall. His back hit the wall first, then his head and legs, but still he stood up and looked at Scout. The possessed boy simply turned his head to him, and Medic realized he was in a spot where the shadow couldn't get him. Still, he had to at least restrain Scout: you can't restrain the shadow, but you can restrain the body.

Taking advantage of the light behind him, he went towards Scout and, taking him by the shoulders, he made the younger man lie down on the table again. He sure expected some resistance from Scout, but the force the boy used to try and get himself free was more than he would usually have. Medic could only keep him down for a few minutes, before the other would overcome his strenght, so he went for his last resource.

"HELP!"

...

Demoman was looking through his books, trying to find a way to stop the SW from taking all Scout's energy. He was doing that in order to keep his team alive, of course, a SW was a very dangerous thing to deal with. Then why was he feeling so guilty at the moment?

'Because he told you, and you paid no attention. This is partly your fault'

Of course it was his fault! What kind of hunter was he if he let creatures get in his base and attack his team mates?! But there was something else. Scout was usually loud and annoying, but he recognized sometimes they went a bit too far with him. The last night he was genuinely trying to alert Demoman that something was wrong, and he just told him to f*ck off. What a great team mate he was...

Still...

"How did he know something was off?"

Only people with an extra sense could feel those kind of things. Was it possible that Scout...?

"HELP!"

Welp, no time for that. After looking through every book for minutes, he found what he was looking for. Years ago he saw a SW, but it was his mentor who killed it, he never saw how he did it because...

"No time for old memories, focus man!"

He started reading the book:

'Shadow Walkers need a projected shadow to move from one body to the next'

Yeah, he knew that.

'Too many lights could lock a Shadow Walker inside a body'

He told that to Medic, but apparently the doctor didn't do it, or he didn't have enought lights

'In order to take a Shadow Walker out of the victim's body first you must lock the Shadow Walker inside. Then you must touch the host with a moonstone'

Finally! Good thing he had some of his old hunting tools with him. He only had to go with Medic and...

"Scout has escaped!"

Demoman froze. Medic was in his door, trying to catch his breath. He looked like he had a small fight, and Demoman went quickly towards him.

"What do you mean 'escape'? He was unconscious!"

"Yes but he woke up with black eyes and attacked me with a shadow and...Herr Demoman, what is going on?"

"No time to explain Doc! Quick! Get everyone to find as many lights as possible and go into the gym! I'll meet you there"

After Medic could say anything else, Demoman ran out of the room. Baffled, Medic stood there for a few seconds, before running out of the room, doing what Demoman asked him to. At least he didn't have to do any voodoo or some sort of magic.

...

Demoman went around of the base, looking inside every room, trying to find Scout. Of course, the SW knew what was going on, and the fact that it had been discovered. That thing wasn't stupid, and took control of a weakened Scout in order to escape. After looking through almost all the rooms, he found Scout inside the Respawn room.

"Shadow Walker!"

Scout turned around to face him. His movements were weird, like he was very tired and couldn't fully control his body. Demoman realized the SW wasn't in total control of the body yet.

"You're not welcomed here..."

He then took out the moonstone: a white, polished stone with a beautiful blue glow. Upon seeing it, Scout hissed back, and then looked around, trying to find any ways of escape. Demoman was blocking the only door, and that room, didn't have any window, so he resumed in doing the only possible solution. He charged against the older man, who took a step back, obviously expecting that, and prepared a fist with the moonstone inside. Too late the SW realized what was going on before he received a punch in the stomach. What would hurt as a punch it hurt twice for the SW thanks to the presence of the moonstone, and as Scout grabbed his stomach taking a few steps back, Demoman took the oportunity to try and grab his hands.

"Yes! Looks like you can't get away now..."

The SW inside realized the serious situation he was in. The moonstone was touching his host's skin, which made him feel weaker than usual, but the room was still dark save from a small emergency light. That was enough for him. Scout grinned at Demoman, and the older man realized his mistake too late. One small light was all the SW needed, as he projected Scout's shadow across the room except where the light was affecting the most. Demoman tried to release scout only to realize the shadows already trapped him. Of course, the moonstone only worked if the SW was weak enough, but there, with only one source of light, the SW had plenty of room to extend his shadows. Demoman cursed inwardly for being so naive. He tried to fight back, but Scout had him stuck on the spot, and the shadows were lurking around him, ready to get in his shadow and make him his new host.

Demoman looked at the boy's eyes.

"I'm sorry lad..." he sighed "I've failed you. If only I payed more attention to you this would never happened...I'm sorry you had to go through this"

To his surprise, Scout, the real one, reacted to those words. His expression went from sadistic to surprised; his eyes from black and red to white and blue.

"Dude, I..."

Demoman smiled at him, but the moment didn't last long. Soon the SW took over again, but this time Demoman noticed that it was struggling to get full control of the body. Scout was giving him some hard time, and he wasn't going to stay still and just watch. Demoman quickly took the boy on his shoulder, and ran towards the gym. The SW tried to fight back, but since Scout wasn't cooperating anymore, the shadows weren't strong enough to keep Demoman from running. Finally, after a few corridors and doors, Demoman arrived at the gym with Scout. As he opened the double door, he went into the center of the gym and yelled:

"Alright team, NOW!"

From all sides of the gym lights turned on at the same time, more than the room would usually have. Of course, Engie was behind this. The SW started screaming in pain, as Demoman set him onto the floor, where everyone saw Scout's body moving like he had a seizure. So many lights blinded the boy and prevented from any shadow to get dark enough for the SW to control it or escape. Soon, Scout stopped and lied down still, with his eyes closed. Demoman wasted no time in kneeling next to him and placing the stone on the boy's forehead, before stepping back. He didn't have to wait a lot of time before the SW was expelled from the boy's body through his eyes and mouth into a dark, smoky form in the air, screaming in agony in a voice that wasn't from this world, before disappearing in thin air.

Only then Demoman signaled for the lights to be turned off, leaving only the gym normal lights, and picked Scout up from the floor, along with the moonstone. As he did, he felt his team mates gazes on him, so he turned around, thanked them, and started walking away with Scout. The rest of the team looked between themselves in confusion, but soon decided that some question were better left unanswered. Engineer started dismantling the extra lights, when he noticed Medic looking at the direction where Demoman left with Scout.

"Doc, you alright?"

Without looking away from the door, Medic nodded.

"Yes Herr Engineer, I'm alright. Thanks for your concern"

All in all it sounded quite cold, but Engie was a man who knew when someone wanted to be left in his thoughts, so he took the lights and went out of the gym as well. Medic, on the other hand, stayed there for a bit longer. He never trusted in magic, but it was exactly that what saved them that time. He HAD to know how it worked...but for the night he was sure he had enough adventures, so he went into his lab to get some proper rest.

...

Demoman went into his room and lied Scout down his bed. He then sit on a chair to try and calm his nerves down. It had been a while since he had done something like that, and he was sure the rush of it was more than welcomed in his system. Still, this time it happened because he was oblivious to the clues; he let it happen. Next time he may not have the chance to discover the danger until it was too late.

He looked at the sleeping Scout. That boy had something weird in him, he was sure of that. He looked through his closet and retrieved a dull, green stone. Anyone would think it was a normal rock, but only a hunter knew what it did. If you put that stone close to anyone who had something to do with the paranormal world, the stone would glow. Of course, once he took it for some seconds, the stone started to glow; he sure had things to do with strange things, but how about Scout?

Demoman went toward the bed, and placed the green stone on Scout's chest and stepped back, so the stone wouldn't "feel" him. And the stone kept glowing with the same intensity, even when he was far from it.

"Well well...looks like I've got myself an apprentice."

Demoman smiled, put the stone back in it's proper place, and decided that the chair and desk were a good place to sleep. The boy would have to sleep for eight hours at least to get enough energy back to wake up, and he didn't want to let him alone, at least for that night.

Tomorrow would be another day.


	3. Dangerous innocence - part 1

**First of all, sorry for taking so long to write something. I just started my practices, and now is practice in the morning, class in the afternoon, job in weekends.**  
 **Yeah, breathing is overrated anyways.**

 **SO! Thanks for the reviews, too bad I can't reply them properly, but yeah, I also think Demoman is not loved enough in the fandom. He's usually forgotten. besides, I wanted to write something paranormal with TF2, and he's the only one who takes these kind of things seriously because he had that encounter with Merasmus.**

 **Well, chapter three, here we go!**

...

The next morning came as soft as a punch in the face. The night before, Demoman forgot to shut the curtains, so the sun shone directly on his face, making his eyes hurt until his brain finally decided that the best idea was to wake up and move the head away from the light. Groaning for the instrusive sun in his sleep, Demoman opened his eyes only to realize his back also hurt. Sleeping on a chair, with half of your chest over a desk wasn't the best sleeping position. Looking around, he remembered why he was in that situation.

To confirm it, he glanced towards his bed, where Scout was still asleep, in the exact same position he left him the night before. That meant the boy was still recovering from the Shadow Walker's attack. Still, he was surprised that Scout fought back the SW without any knowledge. Maybe he was annoying to the point where the SW didn't know if to stay and embrace the never ending talkative mind, or surrender to the light.

Demoman chuckled, relaxing a bit. Truth to be told, he was a bit afraid when he realized what was going on. The first SW he encountered took hold of his body and mind, and it was thanks to his mentor that he was still walking around. At least he proved to himself he could handle the situation if another attacked; still, he acted a bit too late. Had he stayed more alert, none of this would have happened. It wasn't like he was a professional hunter, he still had a LOT to learn, but he was the only one around who knew about all this paranormal world, and the only barrier between his team and whatever was out there.

He was pretty much screwed.

At least if he had to do all the job alone. If he managed to convince Scout to become some sort of apprentice to him, he would be more capable to fight back whatever came to them. Now the big question: being as scaredy cat as Scout was, would he really accept the offer? Then again, when Scout saw something, he went to him. Why?

Too many questions, and being hungry wasn't helping, so he decided to go get something to eat...or drink, whatever came first, and then check on the Medic. He noticed the looks he received from that man, and he was sure the Medic was not okay with all this situation. After fetching what looked like sane, not monster-ish bread, and some of his good old alcohol, he went towards the infirmary.

Carefully knocking just in case the man was still asleep (since in Saturday, ceasefire and all, some of the team enjoyed to sleep more), Demoman waited for an answer, which came with the Medic opening the door with a sleepy face, but all dressed and in his coat, like a professional doctor.

"Oh, good morning Herr Demoman!. Do you have any injuries you want me to investi...I mean, heal?"

Demoman shuddered. That man gave him the hibbie-jibbies more than anything paranormal.

"Nah, I just wanted to check on you Doc, make sure you were okay, you know, with what happened yesterday..."

Medic crossed his arms, leaning on the door's frame, with a cocky smile on his face. Now that was new.

"Herr Demoman, I have to face blood, gore, death and resurrection on a daily basis, every Halloween I have to deal with my second opinion and every monster Merasmus dares to throw at us. I also have to deal with eight men who's minds go from crazyness to insanity. You think I would be that affected by what happened yesterday?"

Yep, he was NOT okay with the whole Shadow Walker thing.

"Look Doc, what happened yesterday was..."

Medic held a hand, closing his eyes, asking in silence for Demoman to stop. He then looked at him, in a more serious face.

"I don't care if it was a Shadow Walker or my sister in her pajamas. If anything escapes science, I don't want to know about it. I can heal any wound you bring me, but if it's about killing something with a lamp, don't count on me. I will check on Herr Scout if that's what you want, but don't try to explain yourself in front of me, even more if it's about anything magic or paranormal, am I clear?"

"Crystal clear..."

Demoman could understand why Medic didn't want to talk about it. Magic was something he hate with passion, since he was a man of science. Still, demoman felt like he needed to do something to make the situation a bit better, at least for the sake of their Doc. But right now, Medic was clearly shutting all the doors for a conversation about the matter, so Demoman resumed on nodding to the offer on checking on Scout.

"Alright Herr Demoman, let me get my tools and I'll be there in a minute. He's in your room, yes?"

Demoman nodded again, and Medic went back inside to fetch whatever he needed to check on the boy. Meanwhile, Demoman decided that the best thing to do was to go outside and get some quiet and peace to calm down his thoughts. Taking his scrumpy from the kitchen, he went out the base. He needed some alcohol in his system if he wanted to think clearly, or at least, clear all those worries.

...

Medic was getting all what he needed to do a simple check in a very calm way, while his mind was racing with thoughts. He was angry for having magic so close, and for Demoman believing he needed some sort of talk-about-it to make him feel better. He was a man of science, not a scared kid! He had handled much more than a moving shadow, he was capable of getting any man back from the death, he didn't need soothing words to calm his mind, he needed the day to be back to normal!

He then realized he was clenching his fists a bit too much, and he had cut his palm with one of his tools. Great, now he needed a new glove. He quickly healed his hand, grabbed his small suitcase, and headed towards Demoman's room. Once he arrived, he found Scout on the bed, sleeping like nothing happened. Medic left the case on the desk, grabbing his stethoscope and getting a chair next to the bed. Once he was settled, he proceeded to hear Scout's chest.

'Mmmm, heartbeat is going okay, maybe a bit too fast. I should take away the garbage he drinks. That thing always makes him talk too much'

He then listened to his lungs, and everything was normal. In fact, nothing in Scout was wrong. Everything was alright, at least for the boy's standards, so why wasn't he waking up? Was it because he was under the influence of the Shadow Whatever too much?

Medic shook his head. No, the boy was just tired for what happened yesterday. Of course, doing all that must have stressed his mind and body to the point of leaving him sleeping for more than he usually slept. Medic stood up from the chair, and went to his case to retrieve a syringe with some vitamins inside to make Scout come back to his senses sooner (he didn't need the boy to sleep for a day, that would be just lazy), when he realized the closet was slightly open.

With his curiosity taking the best of him, and since nobody was around, Medic went towards it and opened a door to see what was inside. He instantly regretted doing it, for he found a lot of tools he didn't want to think or know what they were for. None of them made any sense to the man, and still they looked, at least most of them, like weapons. A particular green stone called his attention, and ignoring the rest of whatever was inside the closet, he took the small stone in his hands.

Inmediately, the stone started to shine in a beautiful green glow, which made Medic's breath stop for a second and his heart skip a beat. That thing was wonderful! A stone that would react to human's warmth and shine like that. Of course, the thing was screaming 'magic!' all over it, but for once Medic didn't care. He was so absorbed in his discovery he didn't hear the Scout's groans as the boy was slowly waking up. It wasn't until he heard the bed creaking a bit that he left the stone back into its proper place and closed the closet.

Scout opened his eyes slowly, instantly regretting the action. He put an arm over his eyes, shielding them from the light in the room, groaning like a kid that had to wake up and get ready for school. That thought amused Medic, who went next to the bed with the syringe like nothing happened.

Before the boy could get away, Medic grabbed his arm and stabbed the syringe in.

"OUCH! What the heck?!"

Scout looked at the man, clearly offended for having to deal with that situation just waking up, but the reaction was exactly what Medic expected. Now the boy was fully awake and ready to start a new day.

"Good morning Herr Scout! I can see you're finally awake after a week!"

Medic couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at Scout's scared expression. He shook his head.

"Don't worry, it's been a night only. How do you feel?"

"What?...Dude, don't say things like that when I wake up...wait, what am I doing here?"

Scout looked around, trying to recognize his surroundings, but nothing rang a bell. He wasn't in his room or the infirmary. He looked at Medic for answers.

"You're in Demoman's bedroom. Don't worry, nothing embarrassing happened, and I'm afraid is not in my hands to explain what truly happened to you. Better ask the man who saved you, and thank him while you're at it"

Before Scout protested, Medic took his things and left. Scout rubbed his arm where the Medic 'syringed' him, and tried to sit up, which proved to be harder than it looked. Why did he fell so numb?

Scout decided to go to the basics: first move your hands, then your arms, then apply force from your shoulder to your arms, aaaaand...sit. After that small triumph, he proceeded to put his legs over the edge of the bed, again taking baby steps to do so. He felt like an idiot, and man was he glad nobody was there to watch him struggle to stand...

"Oh! you're awake!"

...up.

Just in that moment, Demoman came in with his usual bottle of whatever was inside and Scout was never allowed to drink. Scout inwardly cursed to himself, blaming his sorry self for not getting up sooner and leaving. As he was about to finally get his legs over the edge of the bed, Demoman pushed him back onto the damn thing, carefully but with some force in it. All Scout's work down the drain, great.

"Better stay there for now lad, you had an interesting adventure yesterday"

As Demoman was putting the covers over him, much to Scout's dismay, the boy decided to start asking question and fill some gaps in his memory, but Demoman took the oportunity to talk before he could even think what to ask first.

"Look kid, I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. You were right, something was lurking around the base; I didn't believe you and because of that all that crap happened"

Well that was new! Point for Scout, for having anyone apologize to him.

"But I want to ask you something. How did you know something paranormal was lurking around? As far as I'm concerned, you're a normal boy from Boston, not a paranormal investigator with some extra senses to feel things like that"

At that Scout stopped in his thoughts about proclaming himself king of the team. His gaze stopped on Demoman before wandering around the room. That was a good question. How did he notice that something was wrong? Scout gave it a thought, trying to remember what exactly happened before he fell unconscious during the battle. All that tiredness, and that feeling of something roaming inside him...

"It was like when you know you do something wrong" he answered while looking at nothing in particular "you know is not right, and something inside you insists on it. That night, something in my mind just...said that. Like an alarm going off. It was like another side of me was yelling at me to do anything, because something was clearly wrong, but I didn't know what it was. Then, that inner voice said to go and tell you. Something about you doesn't feel normal; is like...what I felt that night, but in a good way...so I went towards you. But you said nothing was around. It was my first time feeling that, so...maybe it was just my imagination. I tried to shrug it off, but my mind kept telling me something was up. It was like...a sixth sense"

Demoman's eye widened. Scout was talking in a monotone voice, like there was another Scout in there doing the speech, yet he was clearly new to this, which meant what Scout called "sixth sense" was in there and fully activated, but the mind didn't know what to do with it yet. More than that, the kid was what his mentor called a "Seeker": people who's sixth sense could pinpoint whatever was wrong, and with training and time they could tell you what exactly the menace was. Demoman himself was more of a "Shielder", who's sixth sense consisted in some sort of barrier, a protection that with time almost no creature could surpass. That kind of hunters usually were entrusted to protect others with their protecting field.

"Then I saw my shadow moving in my room, like it was projected by a candle. I thought it was my imagination, and went to sleep. The next day I fell asleep during the fight, and until now"

Scout looked at Demoman, who was lost in his thoughts.

"Dude, did you listen to me?!"

Demoman snapped out of it, and looked back at Scout.

"Yes kiddo, I heard you"

Scout felt Demoman's gaze on him like something piercing through his soul, and that made him feel uneasy and a bit scared. Demoman usually was a drunk man, who would laugh and yell all day long. This Demoman was serious and thoughtful, and that scared him more than he wanted to realize. So Demoman was believing him now? Which meant...he was right.

He-was-right!

That thought went through Scout's mind for a few seconds, dragging different emotions with it: on one side he was happy about the fact that he was right about the whole thing, but on the other he was afraid of what that truly meant. He was right about something that wasn't normal. He felt a paranormal creature, and that wasn't something a normal person usually did. Was he weird? Was like one of those creatures? Would the team still want him around after realizing that?

He must have shown those worries on his face because he felt the other's hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry kiddo, it's okay. You got a sixth sense, so what? I got one too and you don't see the police coming here to get me, right?" Scout relaxed a bit at that and nodded "Look, Scout, the fact is you were right. Something dangerous was around, and it got you, probably because it knew you could sense it. Thing is, there are probably more of those things around, and I'm going to need help to fight them off"

Scout wasn't sure if he heard right. Not only Demoman apologized to him and said he was right, but was asking for his help? Man that day was totally unexpected! Still, helping the man would mean he would have to fight off things that he usually saw on movies and nightmares, but now being as real as he was. Scout sat up, and this time Demoman didn't push him back down. Looking at his legs under the covers, Scout thought about the oportunity of having a heck of an adventure, or keep things normal and make like nothing happened.

No. That wasn't an option, and he knew it. He may be the youngest, but he wasn't stupid. Saying no to the offer would mean he eventually would be attacked by another of those things, or his team, or anyone close to the base, who could know. For the first time in his life someone acknowledged him for having something special and, lets face it, he felt like a superhero with that sixth sense going on. He took a deep breath to clear his insecurity, and looked at Demoman with a determined look.

"If that means I can beat bad supernatural guys like a pro, count me in"

Demoman smiled in response. He knew for the kid would be like a game at first, but maybe with time he could get a fine companion to fight whatever came towards them. Maybe, when their contracts ended, he could introduce Scout to his mentor, and the three could go hunting.

But for now, Demoman decided to explain what happened with the Shadow Walker and let the Scout recover from the attack.

...

Back in his office, Medic set his case down on his desk full of documents, and sat down on his chair, letting out a sigh. He couldn't help but think about the shinning stone, but if he went and asked Demoman about it, he would receive the answer he was avoiding. Coming from Demoman, that stone was obviously magic, so why did it glow like that upon touching it? What did the human body have the stone needed to activate itself?

Leaning forward, he decided not to think about it. Medic stood back up, and took his beloved violin out of its case. A bit of classic music would help him. His fingers took a hold of the fine instrument, and his mind started leading them to play any music he had stored in his brain. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony came out of the violin; a slower version from the original. Medic closed his eyes, letting the music sink in, allowing his senses to relax and enjoy, to stop thinking about magic and weird thing science couldn't explain.

He kept playing until he realized he was being observed, and not because he could feel something weird, but because he saw a little girl next to his medical cabinet, shyly looking at him. Great, he had enough with Scout that now an actual kid got in the base. Medic stopped playing, and tried to put a face that wouldn't scare the child.

"Well well, who do we have in here?"

The little girl got a bit closer to the cabinet, clearly afraid of him. Fantastic, he just dealt with magic and idiots, and now he had to deal with the little girl. Well, if it meant he could get back to his music...

Medic slowly went towards the child, leaving the violin on his desk and kneeling down to be on the girl's level, stretching out a hand towards her.

"Don't be afraid little thing, I won't hurt you"

The girl looked at the hand, unsure, then at Medic, and then slowly went towards him, but instead of taking his hand, she went directly to hug him. Startled by the sudden move, Medic didn't know what to do. Would it look creepy if he hugged back? He was a war doctor, not a nanny, for crying out loud!

Still, he decided to hug the child with one arm, at least to allow her to calm down. It gave the results he was expecting: the girl seemed to relax in his arm, at least a bit. He was about to say something to her, when a sudden pulling feeling fell on his senses. He tried to move and push the kid away, but he found himself unable to do so. All he could do was stay in that position, as he felt the girl taking something from him. It wasn't something physical, but...it was a part of him. Something he never realized was there, and now he was already missing it.

After what felt like an eternity, the child released him, and Medic couldn't help but fall onto the floor. Looking up a bit, holding himself on his weakened arms, he saw the girl smiling down at him, and then looking at her hands.

"Interesting...I haven't seen a "Rejector" in a while. Good thing I got you first, you would have sent me out of this place in a blink...oh?" She realized the puzzled look on Medic's face "...you didn't know. HAH! You didn't know! I just got you out of the way before you knew you could get me away from here! Hahahaha! You're so pathetic!"

And with that, she went towards the door. Medic wanted to stop her, to warn anyone, to say anything, but he couldn't. On one side because he was truly weak, and he felt something within him was missing, and on other side, because only now he realized that those "chills" running down his spine were, in fact, some sort of magic thing inside him.

Too late he realized it, and for that, he fell in her trap. She attacked him first because she knew he could have done something to stop her. Well, he felt stupid; really, really stupid. He tried to get up, but with that part of him missing he found himself unable to do anything but stay on the floor and pray for someone to come and help him.

He heard her humming Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as she left the room, towards her next victim. Well, the brat had some nerve in h...

Reality fell on him. He knew who was going to be her next victim, and he couldn't even yell, or say anything. There were at least other two who he had that "chills down spine" feeling when he was close to them, and one of them was in no condition to fight back.

'Herr Scout...'

Darkness came over him before he could feel his head hitting the floor.


	4. Dangerous innocence - part 2

**You may have noticed english is not my main language, specially because how many mistakes I do while writing. Of course, I read the whole thing twice before posting it (one while I'm writing it, two while I've finished it), so I would appreciate if anyone would read it before I post it, to help me with my mistakes. That would be awesome.**

 **Well! Now lets see how this ends! Will they be able to save Medic? Dun dun duuuun...**

...

Medic slowly woke up, his eyes trying to focus on what was around him. At first he could only see blurry pieces of meat in front of him, and before his brain could tell if they some sort of new life forms, he made out a pair of eyes, nose, mouth and everything that was part of a face. Two faces, to be exact. Blinking a bit to regain focus, he tried to recognize who they were, but soon his sight wasn't necessary when one of them started talking.

"Doc! Are you alright? And awake?!"

That was, definitely, Scout...

"Hush lad, let the Doc have some room"

And that was Demoman. Why were them in his lab? Then again, why was he unconscious?

And then everything came back at once. The little girl, the embrace and his loss. He tried to sit up, only to feel his body so numb he could barely move his head from side to side. Demoman probably noticed the action and quickly put both hands on Medic's shoulders, keeping him down.

"Wow Doc, not so fast. You were attacked by a 'Pilferer' "

Medic blinked twice. A what?. Demoman must have been pretty alert to realize that, without a word, Medic was asking him what was he talking about. Demoman cleared his voice before speaking again.

"We call Pilferers those who extract special magic from both humans and other creatures. With 'special' I mean our sixth sense, for example" Scout nodded, understanding where he was going "Apparently, that kind of magic is quite powerful, yet very hard to get, and only one kind of creature managed to harvest it. It can change into pretty much any form to deceive it's preys and gain their confidence. Still, it can only change once a day and during the night. While the sun is still out it can't change nor hide in any special way"

"So..." Scout sounded like he was thinking about it, what a surprise "you mean we have to get that guy before night falls, right?"

"Exactly" Demoman looked at him, and Medic could only wonder if they would be able to hit a little girl right in her face "and you'll be the one to find it"

Both Medic and Scout looked at Demoman like he had grown a third leg. What?! Herr Demoman couldn't be serious. If he had to depend on Scout to survive, then he was very much dead. Then again, why didn't let him die and get through Respawn? He could be in good shape in about 5 minutes and help them. Still, if Demoman didn't allow it, it must have been for a reason. Medic could almost swin in the irony of the situation: he, a man of science, needing help from magic. What a delight.

Before Medic could try his chances to say anything again, Scout made the question for him.

"B-but...how am I supposed to find it? I mean...I don't know how to do it yet"

Yet?

"Look lad, see these pendants Medic and I are wearing? I'm passing a bit of my energy to him in order to keep him alive. If he goes through Respawn without his special skill he'll come back turned into a ragdoll. Right now I can't go away from him, so that leaves you to find the Pilferer. Try to lure it here, then we'll see what we do, alright?"

Scout seemed to hesitate about the situation. He was going solo to fetch a creature that, by mere contact, could reduce you to a puddle of flesh, bones and skin. Not a great idea or outcome, and Medic noticed how the boy was looking between Demoman and him, insecure and a bit scared. For a moment, Medic felt bad for him, but soon that was changed by the thought of 'my life is in the hands of this idiot', which made him feel very much worried.

"Lad, hurry up, we don't have much time left before the sun sets. If you don't find it, that thing will eat us three and then go attack others like us, you want that?"

Scout looked at Demoman, unsure of what to do. But then closed his eyes, took a long breath and relaxed a bit.

"You better have a reward for this one, Doc, or I won't let you live this one down"

Medic chuckled darkly, as if he could think about that on the verge of his demise...or coma, whatever happened when you lost your...whatever magic was inside. He breathed out and nodded a bit. Apparently, that was all Scout needed to start his search. Both of them saw the boy run out of the room, and once he was out of sight, Demoman looked at Medic. The doctor decided to just focus on the ceiling, needing a moment to recall everything and put an order to it; something that his mind would accept, because right then, the situation was escaping his hand like water. He was in an unknown territory no book of science would dare to describe. What would he do if he went out of this one? Would he be able to continue as if nothing happened? He wasn't the normal man he thought he was, but part of something that he couldn't control, no matter what.

Yes, he was scared of magic because he couldn't control it like he could control a disease or a wound. Magic escaped his logic, he couldn't explain it, and anything that was unknown to him and not in any book to understand it was the biggest no-no for him.

He then realized Demoman was looking at him. Still not being able to speak, he just waited there for the man to say whatever he needed to tell him; an oportunity Demoman didn't waste.

"Look Doc...I'm sorry about this. I know you hate magic, for what reason I don't know, and I don't need to, but if we manage to get your sixth sense back from that thing, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you for your help"

Medic looked at him without believing his words. Really? Yes, he hated magic, he even admited it, then why was he asking to do something like that? He was a man of science! Wait...get his sixth sense back and then help them?

"We can get it without killing the Pilferer, we only need it to touch you again. That's why it's avoiding you like the plague right now, because it knows that"

Wait, hold on...so he could get his magic back if that thing touched him again?...Was it that simple?

"Doc?"

Demoman probably noticed the grin spreading on Medic's face, but the doctor didn't care. So that was it, so simple. In a way, magic was simple, you just had to think about it in another way. It was like a giant disease: you only had to find the cure for it and everything would dissapear, leaving only the human body sane and perfect. Now all made sense...almost all that is. Medic looked back at Demoman, and nodded. Yes, he would help him get rid of the thing. And then of any other thing. And then of all magic he could find, including them. Medic would find a way to kill magic without harming the body and mind, and then everything will be alright. Demoman probably didn't get all that, for he smiled relieved and nodded back, with a 'thanks Doc'.

...

The daaaaamn THING wasn't around or what? Scout had been looking for it for minutes, mi-nu-tes! And still he couldn't find it. Still, he hadn't tried to use his sixth sense.

Back when he found and saw the SW he thought he was seeing things, and his sixth sense kicked in without knowing it was a sixth sense. Now he had to use it consciously, and he had no idea how. Demoman didn't tell him what to do or how to do it. Should he sit down and concentrate? Meditation? Yoga? Shut his mind and just listen?

The last one looked pretty sweet.

He stopped in the middle of a corridor, and closed his eyes. Doing it made his balance go a bit wobbly, so he held himself against the wall with a hand. Focusing at the task at hand, he tried to imagine the whole base in his mind. That didn't work to well, since his thoughts were all over the place, he couldn't focus in anything but the idea of having to fight something he didn't know how, on his own. Demoman was the only one who knew what to do, but he was by the Doc's side, helping him.

The Doc...

Scout focused hard on that thought. If he didn't do anything, Medic would turn into a mess, and then they wouldn't be able to do anything. The Doc was depending on HIM, for once, they both trusted him to do the job. The thought got bigger and bigger, stepping over the others, until it became a whole in his mind. Scout felt how his mind was closing into it's own core, and he stopped feeling his surroundings, the light over him, the wall his hand was touching, even his body. He felt nothing, but was able to see a lot.

No, he was able to feel it. His mind was turning the feeling into images, and he was seeing a lot of little lights going around. They looked small, dark and greyish, none of them called his attention. Then he saw a bright green light, next to a small, dying red light.

'Demo and Doc'

The names formed in his mind as if trying to inform him those lights were them. He then saw himself, a bright baby-blue light, glowing like a candle in the middle of the night. So he was blue, the irony of being in RED was actually quite funny. He caught himself chuckling, which made his focus go away for a second. He mentally hit himself to stay focused on the task, he had to find a light his mind couldn't recognize. He kept trying to feel what was around him, but all he saw were greyish lights, his team mates probably.

Then he realized something.

'Red...the Doc is a red light, so if that thing got his energy, that thing must be red as well!'

The realization came a bit too late. He was startled and awakened from his trance by a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he found himself looking at Sniper. The look on his face must have revealed he was not in the mood to talk right then, but still Sniper just hold his hand in the same spot on his shoulder.

"You alright mate? Looks like you've been standing there for a while"

A while? how long that 'a while' was? Scout looked outside and realized the sun had set some minutes ago. How long had he been standing there, trying to find the Pilferer?

Scout looked outside scared, which made Sniper confused. Still, the hold on the shoulder didn't loosen.

"It's okay, I'll take you to see the Doc. You don't look alright"

No. No no no no, the Doc was the one who wasn't alright, and he had been so caught in discovering his ability that he let the Pilferer change shape! Now he had to look for it even faster, because it could be anything or anyone, not the form Medic saw. He tried to shrug the hand off of his shoulder, but the grip kept its strenght. Only then Scout looked at Sniper. Something was not right. Something about Sniper didn't sit right to him.

For a second, Scout forgot about everything and everyone, and focused on Sniper. Without even noticing, his sixth sense took over his mind, and he didn't need to close his eyes this time to see the whole lot of red surrounding Sniper's form.

Realization fell on him like ice-cold water. The Pilferer was right in front of him.

But before he could do anything else, Sniper took hold of both of his hands over his head, pinning him against the wall. The other hand went over his mouth, preventing him from yelling or calling for help. Sniper grinned at him with triumph in his eyes. Scout's eyes, on the other hand, felt the cold defeat. Demoman trusted him to find the creature and bring it to him, and he had failed in the only thing he asked him to do. But how was the man expecting him to success?! He only knew about all this paranormal world that same day! The day before he was a normal guy, killing people on a daily basis and dying, with Respawn taking him back to life. He didn't know anything yet! What was he supposed to do?!

Also, why didn't the Pilferer absorb his skill or whatever yet?

Scout looked at the fake Sniper, and found himself surprised to see the thing looking at him shocked. He had felt a draining feeling for a second before it stopped, but he was so caught in his own worries he didn't notice it entirely. Why did the Pilferer stop? Wasn't it's plan to get everyone? Maybe the Pilferer felt something else around? Then again, he was looking at him in shock. Maybe he had something on his face?

"You..."

Okaaaay, the Pilferer was slow. He was awkwardly pinned against the wall by a creature that looked like his team mate Sniper. Normal stuff, happened every day. Still, Scout found himself curious about why was the Pilferer not killing him. His answer came in an even more awkward action. The fake Sniper put its forehead onto Scout's, and closed its eyes. Wow, great, now they looked like a couple. His fear was replaced by the wish that no one saw them like that. What exactly was that fake Sniper doing?

And then it came to him like a thunderstorm.

"You...you're his...no way, you can't be..."

Scout could hear the Pilferer's words shaking with fear, but that wasn't his main problem right now. Something within him was rising from the depths of his core, something murderous, something dangerous, and very, very angry. The Pilferer took a step back, releasing him and shaking madly at the realitzation only it understood, but Scout didn't care.

"He...he never said anything...you can't be..."

Scout took a step forward, abandoning all reason and not caring about what that little, pitiful thing in front of him was saying. He couldn't care less about what the Pilferer was saying, the only thing he knew is that it had dared to touch him.

"...you can't be his son..."

That was the last straw. Abandoning all thoughts and reason, Scout's mind fell into an abrupt darkness right before he charged forward. The last thing his mind registered was the terrified look on the Pilferer's eyes and his screams, trying to get help from anything or anyone. Then everything in his mind went black.

...

Both Demoman and Medic's minds jolted for a second, like a lightning going through them. Medic didn't understand what was it, but Demoman perfectly knew what was going on. A huge force manifested itself within the base. Was it the Pilferer?

No, of course not. That creature was strong, but not enough to put his sense on high alert like that. Even the Doc, in his weakened state, felt it, which meant it was a creature so powerful that even a weakened hunter, or even more, a non Seeker, could feel it. Demoman was about to stand up and look for it, when he felt Medic's hand on his arm. The doctor was sitting up, which meant he could move again.

Which meant...

"The Pilferer is gone..."

Demoman helped Medic get into a sitting position, before gesturing him to stay on the bed a little longer. He then ran outside the room, only to find Engie running towards the Respawn room.

"The Respawn just activated!"

That was all Demoman needed to follow the shorter man. He was going to give Scout the chat of his life about how to be careful and not so reckless. The boy probably charged head first against the Pilferer, and with his dumb luck won the fight, and then he probably died because of his wounds. Demoman sighed while running: of course, Scout couldn't follow the simple order to "search and capture" instead of "search and go stupid, lets see if you kill yourself in the process".

But once Engie and him reached the Respawn room, all those thoughts were left aside. Engie went in first, going next to the unconscious Scout, taking him in his arms, followed by Demoman.

"Scout?! Wake up son!"

To their relief, Scout slowly opened his eyes, looking at both of them, his expression going from confused to worried.

"Aw man...am I in trouble?"

Engie could only chuckle while helping him into a sitting position, while Demoman got his arms crossed, looking at him from relieved to serious. Yep, he was in trouble, and he was about to get the talk of his life.

...

Medic wasn't an impatient man, but the circumstances weren't perfect to be patient at that moment. He had managed to stand up and walk away from his lab, but instead of going towards the Respawn room, he went the other way, where he felt whatever he felt. He kept walking, looking around, until he found what he was looking for: a giant flesh mess in the middle of the corridor, all covered in dark blue liquid, probably the creature's blood.

Medic had to put a hand over his mouth and nose to get closer. It looked human, but he was sure that thing wasn't human at all. It probably was the Pilf-whocares Demoman mentioned, but why was it like that? Who could have attacked it in such a brutal way? Probably another magic thing Medic didn't want to know about, so instead he proceeded to take some samples from the corpse and then carry the rest outside while Demoman was busy with Scout.

The boy probably got killed by whatever attacked them both, and since Respawn got his body, there were no traces of him around. Still, something in all that situation didn't sit right. With that thought in mind, Medic took the remains outside and burned them (Pyro would have loved that), keeping the samples for further investigation. While looking at the burning corpse, he made a promise to himself. To make sure magic would cease to exist.

And that would start by helping Scout and Demoman...for now.


	5. H3ll0 T4vi5h

**Okay, so, I've seen that Demoman's real name is Tavish in a lot of places, so I'm gonna use it in here, okay? Okay.**

 **SO! This chapter...man this chapter. Since I can only write in Saturday, I got the whole week thinking about what to do to introduce a figure I wanted to introduce, and this idea didn't come to me until today. Lets see how Demoman takes the fact I'm introducing said figure, hehehe...**

...

It was a peaceful day. The sun was shinning in the sky and the birds were singing their beautiful songs while flying above his head. The breeze, slightly fresh, calmed the warmth of the day and his body felt calm in the quiet of the field where he was sitting. His hand ran through the grass, feeling the small leaves underneath his palm. He closed his eye looking up, feeling the sun on his face and sighed.

Another very, very, veeeery boring dream.

Since his mentor taught him how to control his dreams just in case a "Dreamthief" came around, he used to have almost full control of them, resulting in the most boring sequences of images one could ever have, since he never left space for his mind to create anything from his subconscious. Of course, he only managed to control the third dream, sometimes part of the second, but not the first. Still, a "Dreamthief" wouldn't try to attack the first dream, since it usually was the one the brain used to store the memories of the previous day, therefore, it was a mess to intervene with, and the result would be very bad, even for a paranormal creature.

So, he was always stuck with any dream he could think off, which meant boring dreams. He ran out of ideas a long time ago; he could replay the events of any fight, his best moments, his best bombs or explosions, maybe the moment when he took down the Shadow Walker, a long etc.

Demoman sat there, as bored as a rock. And only the thought of it brought a rock in the scenery. That was it, he stood up and started walking in the first direction he thought would be okay. The landscape didn't change one bit as he went forward, and so he thought until he saw something in the distance. At first sight it looked like an old building, but as he got close, he could see it was his base, along with BLU base, in 2Fort. He kept walking, curious as to why something he didn't plan was happening in his dream. As he got closer, the sky got darker and the sun was blocked with dark grey clouds. By the time he reached the front gate it was already raining, so he ran inside to get some shelter, only to find it looked abandoned.

Demoman swallowed and started walking in, going through the familiar, yet strange place. He finally arrived at their living room, where the TV was on but in a constant white noise and blank screen. In front of it was their usual worn out couch, and on it was Scout. Demoman walked towards him, going around the couch, and once he sat down on it, he realized Scout was spacing out. His ears noticed a faint sound that grew louder, and he looked to his right, in the opposite direction where Scout was.

There, standing like a moving statue, was Medic playing his violin. Demoman recognized that song, the ninth music of something. His attention went to the TV, which still was on a white noise. Not being able to understand anything, he decided to ask his own mind what was going on, so he looked at Scout and cleared his throat.

"Hey lad, what are you doing here?"

Scout blinked once, twice, and then looked at him. However, he didn't say anything. Instead, he kept staring at Demoman, doing nothing else and creeping him out.

"Okay, you don't have to answer to that"

Demoman tried to stand up and leave. That situation was clearly turning into a nightmare, which was unusual. Had he "woke" up in the first dream? No, that couldn't be possible, there was no way anyone would be "conscious" on the first dream, only the third. So, if the whole thing was escaping his control, in a third dream, that meant...

His thoughts were cut by a hand grabbing his arm before he could leave the couch. He looked at Scout again, who was still looking at him, and waited for something to happen. That was clearly some sort of message, probably an alert.

"Do you remember?"

Scout spoke with a monotonous voice, not a single hint of emotion in it whatsoever. Demoman gave it a thought. Remember what? He had a lot of thing in his memory, too many to count, and he sure had a good memory, he could remember a lot, so if the Scout wasn't a bit more specific he was a bit lost there.

"Remember"

Scout looked at the TV, and Demoman did the same, sitting back on the couch. Expecting the blank screen again, he found himself watching his past self on the sunny field from before. Demoman leaned forward a bit. He then saw himself getting up after the rock appearance and starting to walk forward. Why was he seeing himself doing what he did previously in the same dream?

"Look closer"

Deamoman leaned forward a bit more, watching himself walking through the field, reaching the base. His eye stared at the screen, analyzing everything. But he didn't see anything unusual on it. As the Demoman in the screen was about to get inside the base, Medic stood in front of the screen, blocking his view. His music was getting a bit louder, like trying to distract Demoman from paying attention to the TV. Demoman tried to lean to one side, but the Medic blocked him everytime, never stoping to play his violin.

"Uh, Doc, mind moving a bit?"

Medic, however, didn't pay attention to his words. Demoman stood up, took Medic by his shoulder and carefully moved him aside. Once the screen was in his line of vision again, he saw himself looking back at him, like a mirror, which meant the TV was playing what was happening in that moment. Demoman turned back to Scout.

"Lad, can you rewind the TV?"

Inmediately Scout stood up and went towards the TV, but as he was about to touch it, Medic grabbed his hand, holding the violin with the other, preventing the Scout from doing what Demoman asked him to do. In a flash, the violin turned into the Medic's saw, and before Demoman could do anything, Medic stabbed Scout in the stomach, cutting upright without any emotion on his face. Scout, on the other hand, didn't have time to do or say anything. Soon Medic was holding his heart in the hand with the saw, holding the corpse with the other.

"It's your choice" said Medic for the first time in the dream "take it if you want to find the truth, or leave if you want to be ignorant"

After seeing all that Demoman found himself trembling a bit at the cold stare he was receiving from the Doc after he murdered the boy, but when he started to talk, his voice sounded calm and normal.

"Which one is the better?"

Medic simply stood there while leaving the heart on the TV and taking Scout in his arms bride style.

"The truth will bring you pain, but the unknown will bring danger upon everyone"

Now that was a hard decision. Demoman didn't enjoy pain, but not knowing anything would be worse. Could he handle everything for the sake of everyone, or just be selfish and survive on his own? The selfish prick part came with being able to walk away safely...probably. By the time he looked up to answer the Medic, both him and Scout were already gone. Well, someone had to be the handsome, one-eyed hero, right?

Demoman sighed. Of course, all the crap for him. He went towards the TV and looked at the heart. It grossed him out to no end, but he had to make the decision right there. After all, he wasn't in control of the dream anymore, and he wasn't bored, might as well have a kick out of it. Demoman grabbed the heart, and then all of sudden decided to go outside.

Once he stepped out of the base he saw it was night already. Looking around found nothing but the bridge connecting the bases and the pit between them, so he decided to wait. He looked down at his hand where the heart was, but what he found made him drop it onto the ground inmediately. Instead of the heart he found a black gem, shiny and polished to its finest.

"No..."

Demoman stepped back, getting away from it, until a wall stopped him. Looking around he found himself in a small room, surrounded by dull grey walls.

"No! No no no no!"

His hands were on the walls, trying to find a way out, but nothing aside from a perfect wall came in touch with them. Not once he looked back at the gem on the floor, which was melting into a black puddle, making a gurgling noise and taking a form. Still, Demoman refused to look back at it and kept trying to get a door to appear, or a window. It was his dream, so if this was the act of a Dreamthief he should have been able to fight back and create the damn door. But upon seeing no door he realized the truth.

That wasn't a Dreamthief's act.

And it wasn't a normal dream.

Of course he had a good memory, so...

Demoman took a deep breath, and then turned around to see what he already knew was behind him. The black substance had a human form he knew all too well. The dark figure smiled at him and, in the darkest voice he ever heard, yet his memory kept like the first time he heard it, spoke.

"Long time no see, Tavish"

The floor under his feet disappeared, and Demoman found himself falling into a black void, without walls or floor to catch him. And he kept falling, leaving the room farther and farther while the dark figure still smiled at him.

...

Demoman woke up with a scream, the covers all tangled around his body and covered in cold sweat. He ran his hand over his face, trying to clear his thoughts, but his mind kept repeating the dream over and over again. Of course it was a message, and upon analyzing it a bit it made sense...most of it. Scout was the part of him that wanted the truth, the Seeker so to speak, and Medic was the other part that was trying to protect him from going too far, the Rejector.

"You failed a bit right there Doc..."

Sitting up, Demoman looked at the clock and realized it still was four in the morning. Before he could do anything else, his door swung open, and Scout came in, bat in hand, looking around frantic, randomly swinging his weapon around.

"Where's the bad guy?! I'm gonna smash him, no mercy, big time!"

At the sudden intrusion, and after all the mess he went through his nightmare, Demoman's response was the last thing Scout expected. The older man bursted out laughing, right after the shock of seeing a young man in his undies and sleep shirt getting in his room, armed and ready for action, at FOUR IN THE MORNING. Only then Scout relaxed a bit in his attacking posture, and looked at Demoman, clearly annoyed.

"This is a prank, isn't it? You got me, right? Man, if this is a prank and you start telling everyone, I swear I'll hit your head so hard it'll..."

Demoman calmed down a bit, and looked at Scout while standing up.

"It's okay lad, I just got a bad dream"

At that Scout completely relaxed and sighed, leaving the bat on the floor. He sat down on the nearest chair, letting his body calm down the adrenaline of the moment as well. The younger man ran a hand through his hair, saying things like 'man you scared me' and 'it's four in the morning'. Demoman chuckled a bit, and went towards a cabinet to get some scrumpy. That always calmed his nerves like a charm. He took it and went back to sit on the bed. Scout was still grumpy for the situation, when Demoman gestured him to sit next to him on the bed. Scout complained a bit more, but did as told, and sat next to Demoman.

Demoman took a long sip of his scrumpy before speaking.

"Lad, not gonna lie, things might get a bit dangerous around here"

Scout looked at him. The incident with Medic and the Pilferer only happened three days ago, and he already had to stay alert again for another thing? Man, being a Seeker was hard. Demoman just kept looking straight forward, like lost in thoughts, something Scout always found it annoying in other people, specially if they were talking to him. He was about to open his mouth to protest, when Demoman shifted his gaze to him. The younger man found himself being a bit startled by the sudden movement, and he realized Demoman was not only seeing him, but studying him. Did he have something on his face? Maybe he finally had some beard going on? That would be pretty awesome.

Scout felt a hand on his head, messing his hair a bit. He took the hand away quickly.

"Hey man! What's up with all the silence and stuff? I'm not a kid, you know!"

Demoman chuckled.

"I know lad, is just you remind me of myself when I was hunting down creatures with my mentor. Good old times those were. But I guess I've grown up and now I see things in a different way, not like you do anymore...I'm getting old"

Demoman sighed, leaving the bottle over the night table.

"Sorry for waking you up, and thanks for coming to help me. That was a good reaction, point for you lad. I want that attitude always, you hear me?"

Ignoring the commanding tone in the sentence, Scout saluted him with a 'Yes sir!' and then stood up, took his bat and went towards the door. Of course, complimenting the kid was the best thing to get his anger out of him. Scout said his 'see you later' to Demoman before closing the door, leaving the older man alone in his room with his thoughts.

Demoman stood up from his bed, went towards his closet, and took a long, sharp sword from it. Taking off his eye patch he revealed a green, glowing orb from underneath the small cloth, and then proceeded to look around his room. Glowing in the same color as the "eye", the sword started vibrating in Demoman's hand, ready for action, but Demoman only looked around a bit more, before focusing in one spot of the room.

All of sudden, he attacked one spot of the room where there was nothing, and after the sword passed like what seemed thin air, a small, gremling looking creature appeared cut in half, dying with a weak cry and vanishing from existence.

"Heh, almost got me, Dreamthief"

Demoman put the sword back into its proper place, put his eyepatch back on, and went to sleep. He only had two hours before waking up for the fight. Still, he was forgetting something...

...

It was a peaceful day. The sun was shinning in the sky and the birds were singing their beautiful songs while flying above his head. The breeze, slightly fresh, calmed the warmth of the day and his body felt calm in the quiet of the field where he was sitting. His hand ran through the grass, feeling the small leaves underneath his palm. He closed his eye looking up, feeling the sun on his face and sighed.

"Maybe I should stop controlling my dreams for some time..."

Another very, very, veeeery boring dream was ahead of him.


	6. Are you afraid

**Wow, this one took it's time because of...lack of timel lel. I think this is the longest chapter, and it's longer than what I planned, but in the last moment I wanted to add a bit in order to start Medic's arc. Well, lets see what's going on with these three crazy guys.**  
 **Again, sorry for any mistakes I do. I read the whole thing twice, and sometimes I miss them. English is not my main language, and this helps me to learn it even more.**

...

That day was going to be hard day after the last night. Not only he stayed awake until late, but Demoman had to yell at four in the morning, waking him up. He was lucky Scout got there sooner than him, he wouldn't have been very nice. Medic was walking around his infirmary-lab, getting ready for the fight of the day while thinking about his discoveries from the Pilferer's corpse. Apparently, magical creatures had their own blood, muscles, bones, everything. Too much for magic going 100% against nature, but he also found the samples were weak against some things and strong against others, like a normal, living being.

But there was something else nagging him. For whatever reason he truly wanted to know, something inside the creature's blood was present in one of his team mates blood as well. Of course he had blood samples from everyone, only problem was he...kind of forgot to label them, so right now he knew one of his team mates had something in common with the Pilferer, but not who. Maybe if he took another sample from all of them, but that would be something weird to ask: 'excuse me, but I have to take another sample from your blood because you may be the same as a magical creature we found dead on our base'. All the respect he won over the years would disappear in a second so no, that was NOT an option.

Other way would make a normal check on all of them, and say he needed to see if everything was alright studying their blood, but the next check was in a week. Damn his schedules and plans. He had to wait.

Medic took his medigun, which was always kept in his infirmary instead of the supply room, and went for the Respawn room, ready to start the fight...after a breakfast.

...

That day was going to be something special: BLU team's Spy decided to change base, and another, bright new BLU Spy had joined the team. All happened during the night, which avoided an unnecesary ceasefire. RED was more than excited to start the fight: new members meant easy kills, since they didn't know what to do in their first day, or how their new team worked, not yet that is.

Scout was waiting at the Respawn's door, ready to go and nervous to look for the new Spy. Demoman, on the other hand, was a bit nervous. His sixth sense...well, the other, the natural one, was trying to warn him of something. Of course, he couldn't know what was yet. He breathed in and thought of explosives. That calmed him a bit, enough to start the fight without turning into jelly.

Soon, the Administrator's voice announced the start of the fight, and everyone instantly ran out, looking for blood to spill (and the mission, of course, briefcase and all). Scout was the first in the line, but this time they had a new plan: instead of waiting around until his team got BLU distracted, he would sneak in through the sewers and just run. He would miss the fun, but at least he would be able to tell the other where the sentries or enemies were. He had to be like a real Scout so to speak, so he launched himself down into the water, and after cursing a few flower-full lines, he went into the sewers. As he was running through them he paid attention to everything, trying to listen as much as he could, and for that he took his headset off for a moment, leaving it around his neck. He had to at least pin point the sentry before he was killed and give away the spot to the others.

But as he ran around the corner, another sense activated. Scout stopped on his tracks, shocked. 'Dude...dude dude dude, that not the ear, that's the sixth sense. What the heck? I'm in a mission!'.

Scout turned around, trying to see what would have triggered it, but all he saw was...well, nothing. Maybe an invisible creature? A water creature? Another freaking creature? Medic?. His thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing his throat, and Scout looked at the corner of the small room in the sewer. There he saw the new Spy, being all superior and frenchie, leaning over the wall. Of course; he had to find the damn sentry and the damn creature, and mister 'I could smoke my own shoes' had to interfere, and he could only run away and complete his current missions.

"Okay, look pal, I know you're new here and all, but I got a mission, can't waste my time with ya. Just...go somewhere and get burned or something, I'll see you later and maybe, I don't know, we can drink some coffee while I shoot your face"

Spy only snickered, shaking his head a bit and throwing the butt of the cigarrete to the floor. Then, he slowly walked towards Scout, who flinched a bit and took a step back (only one, real men don't run from fancy frenchies). That amused the older man even more and Scout realized that in the game of the cat and the mouse, right now, he was playing the mouse, so he took his gun out and pointed at the BLU Spy.

"I'm warning you pal, if you don't wanna have your first Respawn trip here by me, go away and backstab yourself"

Spy kept going towards him, not caring about the menacing words Scout was throwing his way. Scout had enough, so he aimed his gun at the Spook's head, ready to shoot, when the other cloaked on the spot. Scout's senses activated, and he ran towards the small room, his back against the corner. That was the only way to avoid a backstab. He looked around frantic, he didn't want to fail the mission because of the newest french fry. Soon his thoughts were interrupted by an invisible hand taking his shoulder and keeping him against the wall. Soon the hand materialized, following the arm, revealing the older man in front of him. Scout had enough of the show, so he put his hand on the other's arm, trying to put it away, but to his surprise, the french fry had to be the strongest man in the world; either that, or he had a metal arm, because Scout was strong as heck and he couldn't push the man away.

"Okay dude, you can get away like now! You either kill me or just go on your merry way, but stop with this crap already!"

Scout was tempted to shoot him, but his weapon required both hands to be manipulated, and right now his right hand was having a conversation with the wall. Also, the whole situation was just plain unfair. First, he had a gay moment with a Pilferer disguissed as his team's Sniper, and now this. People thought that for being the youngest they could keep him like that, but no. He had a mission to accomplish darnit! He was about to punch the man in the face when BLU Spy looked behind himself for a second, before avoiding something. Scout saw a flash of a long blade, before finding himself between Spy and his team's Demoman.

"You alright there lad?"

Scout managed to recover from his shock and nodded. Demoman kept his focus on the Spy, who just kept looking at him, quite amused. Demoman didn't take the bait, instead taking a firm grip of his sword and pointing it at the Spy. Yes, the man had something strange in him, he just didn't know what was it. His mind then went towards Scout. A Seeker could recognize weird auras around him, and since Scout was a newbie at that, he could only see very strong auras if he wasn't focusing on it. Without looking away, Demoman asked Scout:

"Lad, scan him"

Scout looked at him surprised, and then at Spy, but he nodded and closed his eyes. That attracted Spy's attention towards the boy, but Demoman was quick on his movement, and put the sword right under the man's chin, almost touching his neck.

"Don't try anything funny, I can send you through Respawn anytime, lad"

Spy's eyes went from Scout to him, sending shivers down Demoman's spine, but he kept his posture. If that man was some sparanormal creature he would have to drag him outside Respawn's range and kill him. Still, the man was surprisingly calm for having a sword against his neck. Scout was focusing on trying to read the man, and out of the corner of his eye, Demoman could see he was trying really hard. Scout's face was showing distress, like he didn't like what he was receiving, or he couldn't exactly 'read' what was going on, which could mean two things: they were trying to reveal a normal guy, or...

His eyes wondered towards Scout for a second and that was his mistake. Spy took that brief moment to take the blade away from him and attack Demoman with his knife. Before Demoman could even start to wonder what was going on, he received a stab on the shoulder holding the sword, which made him drop the weapon, and then a stab in each knee, which made him fall onto the floor, unable to get back up. He heard Scout yelling something, but his mind was two steps behind the current situation. Still, his eyes registered Spy quickly moving towards Scout.

Scout didn't have time to react, when he was pulled into an embrance by Spy. Before he could think of anything to counter-attack him, Spy got close to his ear, whispering.

"Attendre un peu plus longtemps, mon cher garçon"

Scout's didn't have time to think about those words when a blade sunk into his back, cutting his spine in two, causing a quick death. Spy then slowly lowered the boy's body onto the ground, while Demoman could only watch what was happening near him. Spy left the body carefully on the floor, putting both of the boy's hands on the chest, to what Demoman could only think he was being a dramatic pansy. Still, that dramatic pansy got him and Scout before they could react, so he was a dramatic, dangerous pansy.

His body flinched when Spy turned his attention to him, standing up and slowly going towards him. The man had a way to move that wasn't natural, like when you watch something in slow motion but with the normal speed. Like an optical illusion. Demoman tried to get crawl away, putting as much distance betweem himself and the spook as possible, his gaze dancing between Spy and Scout's corpse. His mind was trying to catch up with the situation, but the shock of seeing the Spy move so fast and beat them in a second was still there.

Was him that weak after so many years without hunting?

Was dying the only way out?

"Heh..."

No, of course not. He looked at the Spy, who was still approaching at him. Demoman took his eye-patch off, revealing the green glowing eye. For the first time since they met him, Spy stopped to look at what was going on, slightly surprised. Soon he was smiling again, but this time he was waiting to see what would happen next. Demoman didn't hesitate: once Spy was aligned between him and his sword he summoned the weapon, which answered the master's call going towards him, blade first as commanded. But instead of reaching Demoman, it went through Spy's stomach, cutting everything on its way. The BLU's expression was of utter surprise more than pain, specially when he looked down, asking himself what happened.

"Sorry lad...I've had enough of you for today..."

The sword made a swing upwards, cutting Spy's body in half from the waist up. The corpse fell onto the floor, leaving a huge puddle of blood. The sword returned to Demoman, who covered his eye again, panting out of tiredness since using his power would cost a bunch of his energy. Yep, he needed training again.

"Bloody hell..."

He ran a hand through his face, trying to reclaim everything that happened. A Spy just handed their asses to them, and he barely managed to pull out an old trick, but that only worked once, he would have to think what to do for the next time. Maybe bring Sniper with him? He was sure the wild man wouldn't want to be taken into the sewers.

Demoman looked towards Scout was, or at least, should have been. Lucky him the Respawn already claimed his body. He would have to ask the lad later about what he felt, right now, he had to go through Respawn as well and fix his sorry self.

"Well, better do it in one swing"

Taking the sword with his left hand, he lifted it by the blade so the pointy end was facing his chest, and let it go. In a few seconds he was looking at the Respawn's wall, nauseous and all. Respawn's love; bringing you back to life with your lunch in your throat ready to come out. Lovely.

"Dude! Took your sweet time out there!"

And of course, the lad had to be right next to him, yelling into his ear, because that helped. This time, however, instead of yelling back at Scout so he would shut up, Demoman decided to just remind him of his mission.

"Lad, shouldn't you be fetching a suitcase? Well go, you're late"

Scout said something along the lines of 'you're not my boss', but left anyways. Demoman soon followed him; he wanted to finish the mission as soon as possible, so he could get some calm time to order his thoughts.

...

Much to Demoman's annoyance, the mission took longer than he wanted. The new Spy didn't pay any special attention to them anymore, but soon they discovered he wasn't a newbie: the man had a lot of tricks under his sleeve, and Engie's buildings were falling like bugs on a very hot day, and Pyro was having a hard time finding him. Demoman had to stay behind and help defend the suitcase, sword in hand and stickies on the entrances, and still the Spy got the suitcase twice before Scout brought the suitcase from BLU. Lucky them, all RED were focusing their fire on Spy, so they stopped him both times he got the suitcase, but it was a call way too close for their taste.

Demoman was sitting on the couch very, very tired. He had a lot of thinking to do. He knew the man wasn't normal: something was wrong with him, that was for sure, but what exactly? Just then he heard Scout arguing with their own Spy about why french was, like he put it, 'so freaking hard to learn'. Spy was clearly annoyed by the lad, and he was trying to shoo him away, but Scout didn't get the hint, or didn't want to, and kept asking the same question. He was cut off by Demoman calling him from the couch. Scout looked at the older man, his whole persona turning a bit more serious, and waving a goodbye to Spy (who sighed in relief) he went towards Demoman.

Once he was close enough, Demoman patted the couch next to him, and Scout sat on the spot, only to realize he just accomplished someone's order without a question.

Demoman realized that as well, and chuckled a bit, before going into business. Crossing his fingers over his legs, he looked at Scout serious. The boy felt like melting a bit on the couch's back, but didn't say anything, waiting for the other to say anything.

"Lad, I want you to tell me exactly what you felt in the sewers"

Scout relaxed at the question. Lucky him, Demoman probably didn't see when he accidentally kicked one of his stickies and made himself explode into tiny pieces. He looked in front of him, trying to recall what exactly he felt while 'scanning' the Spook.

"Well, is hard to tell...I mean, at first the guy felt normal, but there was something like...in the background, you know?"

Demoman nodded.

"The guy felt weird, like...how can I explain this? Like...I don't know"

Demoman frowned, which made Scout tense a bit. He knew that wasn't the answer Demoman was expecting. The older man looked away for a second, thinking about what the boy said.

"Is it like when you try to hide a stinking smell with a good smell?"

Scout's eyes widened. That was actually a pretty good explanation for it. He nodded.

"Yeah, exactly! Like his human light was trying to hide another one!"

Light? Demoman looked at Scout. So the Seekers saw auras as lights. Interesting.

"Could you tell me more about those lights?"

"Sure! you see, normal guys usually have a dull, grey light around them, you know. Well, they have some faded colors in it, but all toned to grey. Then it's us, who have different lights. Yours is green, Medic's is red and mine is blue"

Demoman thought about that. So he had a green aura, interesting...At least his aura matched one of his favourite colors, but then another question popped in his mind. Scout answered it before he could ask.

"That guy had a black light hidding behind the grey one and...man, it was something scary..."

Demoman frowned. Black light? That couldn't be normal, even for a paranormal creature. Maybe they were going against something more powerful that they encountered in the past few days, but then again, whatever Spy was didn't attack them until they went against him first.

"When I arrived, you two looked like you were having a very romantic scene. Care to explain me what was going on?"

Scout's head turned so quickly Demoman heard a crack in his neck. Well, if he wanted a quick answer just use the word 'romantic' between Scout and any other male around the base.

"We weren't doing anything romantic! He just grabbed me by the shoulder, that's all! Then you came and he jumped away; by the way you nearly cut my nose off thank you very much"

"Bah, I saved you lad, stop whinning about it. Did he do anything before I got there? Did he try to attack you or anything?"

Scout shook his head with a 'no'. So whatever that was didn't attack him, just observed. Demoman had no idea, neither remembered about a creature that only studied others instead of attacking or becoming a parasite. He would have to look around his books for information.

Scout was about to tell him about what Spy said in French, but held himself before saying anything. Lucky him, the older man was into his thoughts enough he didn't realize Scout was about to say something. Deciding the best was to leave the man to his own thinking, Scout stood up, and then Demoman noticed him. With a simply 'I need some Bonk' he excused himself and left the room, but instead of going to the kitchen and fetch the drink, he went outside.

Once outside, the cold breeze received him, but he ignored the feeling. His mind was somewhere else. It was in the new Spy, in the Pilferer, in the Shadow Walker and in themselves. All of that stuff was happening too quickly for him to realize what was going on, and he was feeling lost. Demoman always looked like he knew what to do, but in front of the frenchie he could only stand and do nothing but cry out about how manly he was. For what he knew, Seekers could only find things, while Demoman could protect and Medic reject. He was, in a nutshell, pretty useless.

And man he felt useless. Demoman always helped him, Medic more or less accepted it, and what was he doing? Going around like a brat, claiming how good he was. Maybe he needed to relax a bit, stop thinking about everything, let his mind go blank. He saw a crate next to the base's fence and decided it was a good spot to sit on and calm down. Ironically, he found it was the same crate Demoman was reading the night he used his sixth sense for the first time. Sitting on the crate, he leaned on the fence and closed his eyes, lowering his head a bit.

He thought about the paranormal creatures they encountered until now, about Demoman, about Medic, about the new Spy and then, about himself. Little by little his mind went towards a complete darkness, and then he didn't feel the cold air around him, or the crate under his body, or the fence. He couldn't even feel the hands on his legs, or his body at all. He only saw darkness, and then an amazing feeling of peace and quiet. He found himself smiling at the start of a sequence of images of himself as a kid. he was near his mother, his brothers always around to pick him up when he fell, or to teach him all sort of things. He found himself being so short he couldn't reach the table, when his older brother picked him up and gently put him on a chair, so he could see the cookies his mother was preparing for all of them. She had to do a lot because they were eight kids. The breeze was pleasant, and he really wanted to go outside, so he got down the chair towards the kitchen's door leading outside.

But when he opened the door, everything turned dark. The entire house was in a decaying state, and looking outside he saw everything dead. Turning around he found his mother and brothers as living corpses, preparing cookies out of human parts. Scout tried to scream, but no voice came out. He tried to run away, but the more he ran the heavier his legs felt. He was no longer an infant, but his actual self. As he tried to run away from everything, the house and his family disappeared, and instead a dark figure, like a melting silhouette, was following him.

The more he tried to call for help and run, the harder it turned out to be. The melting figure reached him, and Scout felt a hand on his shoulder.

Scout's eyes opened as his body went forward in a quick movement, like receiving an electric shock. His face was looking at the ground, cold sweat on his forehead, his arms embrancing his stomach. His whole body was frozen in that position, shaking from the nightmare and the cold outside. The sun was already gone, and everything was dark. Scout's mind was blank, he couldn't process anything until a hand landed on his shoulder. With a quick movement of his head Scout looked to his right and found Medic looking down at him. His body relaxed a bit upon seeing a 'friendly' face, sighing with relief.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Medic's tone wasn't warm, but at least wasn't as cold as usual. Scout nodded, his body returning to a normal sitting position, closing his eyes to try and get his composture back. Medic watched the boy slowly coming back to his senses, letting him calm down before speaking again.

"Tell me Herr Scout...are you afraid?"

Scout looked at him like he had grown a third arm.

"Heck no!" he was lying "I'm not scared of anything, dude!" Scout was clearly lying to him. He was afraid, but was hidding it. Why? Pride? Maybe he didn't want to become a nuisance? Whatever the reason was, Medic found it perfect for his plan. Before the boy could say anything else, he put a blanket over him and sat next on the same crate. If you want to gain someone's trust you have to show a gentle side, even if he didn't have it fully developed.

"You can't lie to me, Herr Scout. All this has come all of sudden, out of the blue, and you weren't prepared. It's okay, is normal to be scared, we are not hunters like Herr Demoman"

He got the boy's attention at 100%. Medic inwardly smiled to himself.

"I'm scared as well, I must say I hate all this magic world because I don't know how to counter attack it. I was surprised to know that my sixth sense is an offensive one, which can expel anything magic or paranormal away from me, but...how to use it?"

Scout lowered his gaze. The boy was asking himself the same question. Medic smiled without the other noticing.

"I'm afraid Herr Demoman is a few steps ahead of us, and he knows what to do, for what I'm glad but...I don't know what would I do if he asked me to use my sense to help him"

The boy flinched at that last sentence. Medic sat a little closer to him, his arm touching the boy's arm. He knew people wouldn't try to run away if the one who was talking to them in a time of need touched them in a calming way, and he needed to be really close to Scout if he wanted to accomplish his plan.

"He's always trying to collect any kind of information about what's attacking us, and while that is important, he seems to be ignorant towards what you may feel after experiencing some things..."

Scout's gaze was locked on his own hands over his legs. His fingers were playing between themselves, a gesture a person would do in a moment of distress. Slowly but sure, Medic put an arm over the boy's shoulders. Scout didn't get away or answered in annoyance, but Medic noticed a sudden stop in his hands, before resuming in what they were doing. The young man was thinking about the situation, and Medic let him some time before saying his next line, he was a patient doctor after all.

After a few seconds passed, and before Scout could make a resolution on his own, Medic spoke again.

"I could make it stop"

It was a whisper, the closest voice Scout had in that moment. His thoughts were interrupted by that sentence, and Scout looked at Medic. The older man was smiling at him, and Scout found himself relaxing a bit, but still his sense was in high alert, trying to warn him about something.

"And you will help me with it"

Scout's mind finally clicked: something was clearly wrong with that deal, and he found himself trying to get away from Medic's grasp, but the doctor kept him in place. Before he could say anything else Medic took a needle from his pocket and injected it in Scout's neck. The medicine made it's effect sooner than Scout expected and he fell into a dreamless sleep, missing the dark smile on Medic's face.

Taking the boy's body over his shoulder, Medic went into his lab. He locked his door, making sure no one was around, and moving the desk a bit to the side he revealed a door on the floor. Looking around once more, he opened it and went down the stairs, into a hidden basement in which he had his most secret experiments.

Setting Scout on the medical table he had there, he tied the boy by the arms, feet and neck. Checking around he found the book he took from Demoman while the man was talking in the living room with the boy and set it on a table nearby. He looked in it, going through the pages, until he found what he was looking for.

"The core"

For what the book said, every paranormal creature had a core somewhere inside them, and that category included humans with sixth sense, since they needed it for their paranormal features to work. Connecting life support machines to Scout and a breathing mask with anesthesia over his nose and mouth to keep him asleep, he prepared himself with clean tools and his loyal gloves. He took the scalpel and went towards the boy.

"Don't worry Scout, soon everything will end and you'll be free"

And with that, he started to cut.


	7. In your dreams

**First of all, thank you so much for the support you gave me. I was about to dump the story because I thought nobody liked it. Of course I saw people read it, but they were getting less and less with each chapter, and no reviews or favourites made me think I was going on the wrong way. But after you wrote all those kind reviews (one of you even made an account to do it, thank you!), I decided to finish the new chapter I had half done.**

 **And since now I have my Christmas holidays, I might be able to update a bit more often.**  
 **As for now, lets see what mister crazy Medic does.**

...

He had been there for an hour, trying to find wat the book called core, but nothing out of the normal showed up. All he saw was what the human body usually would have: organs, bones, flesh, but not bright lights or anything of the sort. Medic's patience was getting short real quick, and he found himself going through Scout's chest cavity, trying to find anything. But then he realized, what if the core was protected by something he would usually consider normal? Medic's gaze fell on the boy's heart. Slowly, his hands went towards it, touching the organ in a delicate way, as if trying to not break it. The pulsating movement the muscle was doing felt relaxing on his hands, almost hypnotic, and his mind started to lose focus on the current task to fall into a calm, peaceful state.

Medic's eyes closed, and he could feel his own heartbeat going at the same pace as Scout's. Soon the beats were even, like one single heart, and then he saw it. An intense, baby-blue light echoing on his eyelids. Afraid of losing the image, Medic tried to focus on it, like he was mentally trying to reach it, but as soon as his ethereal hand tried to touch the light it went a few inches away from him. Of course, as the Rejector he was, any aura except his wouldn't want to stay close.

But maybe that's what he had to do. push the aura away until it disappeared, until the core was nothing else but a normal human heart, so Medic mentally took steps forward towards the light, and at the same time, the light took more and more distance between itself and him, until it reached what looked like an invisible wall. The light couldn't go any further, and Medic realized he was in the limits of Scout's mind, or anything of the sorts. He kept pushing the light away, hoping that it would disappear.

But instead of disappearing, the light turned a darker shade of blue. That took medic by surprise, as he found himself stopping on his tracks. The light got darker and darker, and Medic felt fear increasing in his own core. Slowly, he started backing up, but the light was already going towards him. Something inside him went on high alert, and all of sudden Medic started to run away from the light, as it turned darker and darker until the blue was barely visible. Medic himself found an invisible wall and couldn't keep running away. He turned around, and saw a black, melting silhouette looking directly at him.

With a gasp, Medic woke up in a corner of he basement laboratory. He started to hear the constant beep of the life-support machines. He looked up and saw Scout on the table, bleeding out. He then lowered his gaze and found Scout's heart on his hands. Standing up quickly, he went towards the boy and sewed the heart back into it's proper place, before healing the boy. A minute too late and Scout would have died out of Respawn's usual hours, which would make the Respawning process very tiring for him. He started to take off everything from the younger man, taking off the mask and whatever he connected to him, and took his sleeping form over his shoulder, climbing up the stairs into his normal lab. He then set Scout on one of the beds and covered him, before letting himself fall onto his chair.

Medic ran a hand through his hair, trying to recall what he saw in that dreamstate. For all he knew, he found Scout's core, and could have rejected it completely if it wasn't for the fact that the core attacked back. But how? The only answer could come out from the expert in the matter. Medic hated it: he had to ask Demoman about it and, of course, explain everything to him, to which he was sure the other man would be really angry at. But he had no choice.

Once recovered enough from the shaking experience, Medic stood up and went towards the door, not before looking at Scout for a moment. Then he left the room.

...

Demoman was in his room checking the books he brought from his home, left to him by his mentor, in order to find anything about a black aura, but all he got with the word 'black' in it were a few paranormal creatures, almost all of them from shadow nature. After reading through four books already, he set the fifth on his lap and took a breath in. He then looked at the pile of six more books he had to check, and with his luck, he was sure, the correct book would be the one at the bottom, which raised the question 'why not start at the bottom then?', but then with his luck, starting at the bottom would make the correct book be the one on top. He sighed and closed the book he was reading, leaving it on the bed. Tomorrow would be another day and he would probably feel better.

He was about to set everything to go to sleep when there was a knock on his door. Without even looking at it he said a short 'door's open' and kept rearranging his personal items, but had to stop when he saw who was coming in. Medic looked at him, professional as always, but Demoman knew better: the doctor never paid a visit to anyone, less get in someone's room by himself, so it had to be an important matter, and judging by the look in his eyes, it was very important.

Before Demoman could say anything, Medic got the chair and sat on it, gesturing the other man to sit on the bed so they could have a conversation. The whole situation made the explosive expert feel uneasy: talking in private with Medic was either finding out you had a rare disease and you were his new guinea pig, or that he had messed up with something concerning you. Either way, it was something bad.

Medic breathed in before speaking.

"Herr Demoman...would you be so kind to help me with...this magic world of yours?"

That caught Demoman offguard; he needed a moment to get the question, repeat it and process it in his head before starting to form a correct answer. He leaned forward, crossing his fingers over his legs as support.

"S-sure, what is it Doc?"

Medic adjusted the neck of his coat.

"I want to know if what you call aura can change, in any way"

Oh wow. Demoman knew a few paranormal creatures could do that, but those were extremely powerful and rarely ever seen: they preferred to stay away from human contact, as they knew they could be damaged by science. Totally opposite to Medic so to speak.

"Well...there's a powerful creature...few of them that can, but usually no, is not something someone can do. You are born with an aura and you die with the same one, so...wait, why are you asking me this?"

Demoman's suspicions pierced through Medic. The man was now trying to read him, and he had to spill the beans if he wanted more information. What he witnessed went completely against Demoman's theory, so the correct answer was they had a powerful creature lurking around, and messed a bit with Scout's aura.

"Thing is I tried to get Herr Scout's aura...out"

Before Demoman could jump off the bed and start angrily yelling at him about how bad that was, Medic held a hand, stopping him in mid-act.

"I know I did wrong, but something happened I would like to discuss with you. The reason I asked you that is because I saw Herr Scout's aura changing. Now, I would be worried if it wasn't for the fact that the aura took a black silhouette form right before I came back to my senses"

Demoman tensed. That black form was something that polluted his dreams, at least recently, and he knew more or less why was it, but that was impossible: that black silhouette belonged to a powerful creature his mentor and him fought once, and they made sure to lock it away where it couldn't harm anyone. But now...the Doc saw it in his 'dream', which meant one thing. Either the creature had escaped, or a spawn of it was nearby. But why would one of the creature's children roam that lost piece of the world?

Then it clicked.

The BLU Spy.

That man was probably part of the creature's offspring, and he was probably around to either do his part as looking like a human, or get revenge on him for locking his daddy away. Either way, they were screwed if they didn't prepare first. On the other side, the Spy didn't attack Scout on his own, only reacted when Scout attacked him first...

"I see..." Demoman was thinking, but soon looked at Medic right in the eyes. "Don't ever try to do that again...where is he?"

Medic was momentarily taken back by that look he received, but got his composture back in a second.

"He's in the infirmary, recovering from the anesthesia, and he's fine, don't worry. But I'm worried for what I saw. I hate magic, you know it, but what I hate even more is casual-mysterious magic. That unnerves me more than anything"

Demoman gave it a thought. The creature had the bad habit of getting in people's dreams and mess with them: you would imagine you were dreaming about something and then BAM! Welcome to your personal nightmare.

"When did that happen? When did you see the black silhouette?"

Medic crossed his fingers over his legs, mimicking Demoman's posture.

"It happened when I set my hands on Scout's heart. One moment I was feeling his heartbeat Trying to not grimace and seeing his aura, the next the aura got darker and turned into that"

Demoman tried not to grimace over the 'hands on heart' scene, and looked down. Maybe the Medic somehow connected with Scout's aura and left his defenses down, allowing the creature to take over the dream, or the BLU Spy, so to speak. He was sure that man was part of it, his black aura gave him away, and the silhouette...

But then he realized something else: he had that nightmare before the new BLU Spy came into their base, which meant that either the man was just a lower creature and another child was nearby, or that he was already close to them and no one noticed until he presented himself as the new Spy.

Medic realized Demoman was having a hard time putting the pieces into their proper place in all that mess, so he decided to stand up and let the man rest for the rest of the night. He had enough of crazyness for one day as well, so he headed towards the door, when Demoman stopped him on his tracks with a hand on his shoulder.

"I will take care of the kid if you don't mind"

That wasn't a question. Demoman wasn't asking him, it was more like a polite order. However, with his medical equipment, he could take care of Scout better and, he had to admit, all that was his fault. Only for once he was going to take the guilt and feel it a bit, just so the other man wouldn't nag him for too long. But he knew Demoman wouldn't let him: he probably didn't trust his methods anymore, or at least for some time. Medic didn't need his trust that much really, but he knew in the fight he needed his team to stay alive more than five miserable minutes, specially being the main target of the enemy's team.

Magic or not, he had to comply.

The doctor led Demoman into his laboratory, and once there, Demoman went to scout's side, taking him over his shoulder. Once he was sure the boy wouldn't slip off of onto to the ground, he simply nodded towards Medic and went back to his room, leaving the other man in his lab to think about what he had done.

...

Sniper was a simple man: he found happines in small things nature gave him everyday, not trying to get as many items as possible like the rest of the world. He had his van, his rifle, his clothes, some hunting trophies, etc. And now he was enjoying the amazing night the dessert offered to anyone who wasn't dumb enough to lock themselves inside a building and miss hundreds and hundreds of stars.

He was lying on the grass, next to his van, covered in blankets so he wouldn't freeze with the cold night breeze, enjoying the silence of the moment while his team mates had their own parties and shenanigans. All that stressed him to no end, and even if their Engineer tried his best to make him part of the team, Sniper just couldn't bear it.

His eyes were slowly closing, as the day's battle worn him, as usual, and he felt his body trying to melt with the blankets, as if doing that would take the tiredness away. But as he was starting to get into the dreams world, a soft, cracking noise woke his senses and made him sit up. Who in the world would disturb him at those hours?

Before he could even think about it, something got him and made his body stand up in a second. Turning around, he found himself face to face with the new BLU Spy, who was grinning at him. Sniper sighed.

"Look mate, is off-fight time, and I'm bloody tired, and since I'm a nice guy, I'll let you run away before I start shooting"

Spy remained silent, with his grin plastered over his face. Sniper found that weird and creepy, so he went to retrieve his rifle when a hand grabbed his arm, not roughly, but strong enough to stop him. He looked at the Spy, this time curious about what the man would want. Usually, a Spy would knife him down once he dared to make a move, but this one acted weird: he wasn't trying to attack him or defend himself, he just stood there and grinned at him. And touched him, which annoyed Sniper to no end.

He resumed to let the other man react or something, taking a hold of his kukri just in case, but he wasn't prepared for what happened next. Spy quickly took a hold of both of his hand, turned him around and, keeping both hands on his back, made Sniper kiss his own van, face first. Keeping him in place with his own weight, Spy leaned closer to the struggling man, and sniffed him around the neck.

"OI! Get off you creepy weirdo!"

Spy snickered a bit at the man's efforts to insult him or release himself from the hold, but he already noticed it: that Sniper was like the RED Scout and Demoman. He wasn't a normal human being, something in him connected to the paranormal world, and his energy was sweet and nice to have near. Only one thing could emanate such kind energy.

"Who would have told me that a Healer was walking around the streets?"

Sniper stopped all of sudden, his struggles and insults dying in a second. Spy didn't have a good view of his face, but he was sure the man was, at least, shocked. Slowly, Sniper turned his face as much as possible to look him out of the corner of the eye in pure disbelief, his mind trying to get the proper words to answer back. When nothing came out, Spy released him, allowing him some air so the man could get a hold of himself. After all, he could get the man cooperation if he played his cards right.

"H-how did you...?"

"Know you are a Healer? Easy mon ami, your energy is kind and soft, no other human with sixth sense could have it. Which raises the question: why are you so away from others? Your kind usually help the rest of the world, right?"

Sniper was about to reply when Spy held his hand, silently asking him to stop, and then proceeded.

"I'm not here to harm you, neither your team mates. I'm here because your team has something that belongs to me, and I want it back"

Sniper was unsure about what to answer. They had something of his? But what could it be? Maybe Demoman, that paranormal fan, stole something from the wrong guy? And what did that had to do with him?!

"The only thing I want from you is to stay out of my way. Don't warn others, don't tell them I reached you, don't even say a word about your sixth sense, alright? Do that, and I'll never disturb you again. Do the opposite, and I'll make sure your life turns into the sweetest hell I can imagine"

Albeit Spy was saying all that with a soft tone and a kind smile on his face, those words stabbed Sniper like the coldest ice, worse than a knife on the back. He had kept his power a secret for all his life, only his town knew about it, so it wasn't in his plans to go tell everyone he could heal with a simple touch, but keeping that someone from the enemy team had plans involving them? That sounded more like a huge betrayal. On the other hand, if Demoman took something that didn't belong to him it was his own problem.

For the moment, Sniper decided to agree to the terms. Spy stretched his arm towards Sniper, to seal the deal with a handshake, and Sniper answered it without another word. After that, Spy was about to leave with a 'Goodnight' when Sniper stopped him.

"If you didn't want to hurt me, why did you come here? You could have stayed in the shadows and I would have never noticed you"

Spy smiled at him once more, and then said:

"Your energy is far too attractive to not get close and feel it"

That made Sniper shudder with disgust. Spy turned around and cloaked, and Sniper decided he had enough for one night, so he went inside his van, thinking about the whole thing, and if he would finally follow the deal entirely or not.


	8. Red stakes

**I can't believe I said "Christmas" and "free time" in the same sentence. Only in the last day of my holidays I was able to write this down.**

 **WELL! It seems everyone is getting close to this paranormal world, but still some of them got some issues about it. What will happen? Dun dun duuun...**

...

Scout slowly opened his eyes, his eyes still unfocused from the anesthesia, even if its effects weren't as strong as before. He tried to look around, but realized he was too tired for that, so he kept his unfocused gaze towards the ceiling. For the darkness around it was probably still night, and his brain wasn't in the mood to even create any question as to why he was lying there.

Then, bit by bit, his mind recollected every piece of memory he could gather, and bit by bit he saw Medic's calm face and soft voice, saying things he wanted to hear only to fall into his trap thanks to them. Man, was he a fool for trusting the crazy ass doctor.

Soon, his eyes started focusing more and more, his brain clearing from the anesthesia, until he could formulate normal thougts. On one side he was angry, he felt betrayed, but on the other he felt a bit sad, maybe disappointed. He knew feeling betrayed by Medic was not something reasonable, since the man usually used his position and knowledge to lure them into his experiments, but that moment Scout thought he had someone to relate to. But no. He was as alone as always, no questions asked, no answers given.

Sitting up he realized he was in his room. Once his eyes got used to the darkness of the room he looked around, and found Demoman on his chair, sleeping in an awkward and not very comfortable position. Scout found it quite amusing, but then it turned into a thankful smile: the guy probably rescued him from Medic and took him away, and he even stayed with him just in case. He had done that as well when he was possesed by the Shadow Walker, and in return he only asked for Scout's help. And he only acted as a crying baby because his powers were new to him.

Others wouldn't count on him for anything.

The small thought crept into Scout's very core: he could be useful to someone, instead of always being the yelling brat everyone knew, and maybe he could end up doing something good that would gain everyone's praises. That would be actually...very good. Amazing.

Trying his legs, Scout stood up from his bed, still feeling dizzy, and went towards his desk, careful not to wake Demoman, and half sitting on it for support. If Demoman needed to know more about that guy, he would get all the information possible. Closing his eyes, Scout focused on trying to 'see' everyone's auras. First he saw Demoman's green aura, glowing less than usual, probably because he was sleeping. Then felt Medic's red aura, the bastard was probaly still awake. Then he tried to expand his sense, covering the whole base and beyond, reaching the other. He saw a bunch of dull, grey auras with fainted colors, and then he saw a bright, white aura coming from outside, but he paid it no mind: he was way too focused to notice anything else but the Spy's black aura: anything else didn't matter at the moment. His focus on the task gained over his mind, reaching his very core.

Demoman shifted on the chair, trying to get a better position, when something made him wake up. At first he thought it was a lamp he left on, but soon realized none of the lamps on the base gave a blue light. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at Scout, floating a few inches over the floor, with his eyes closed and weird shaped, blue symbols glowing around them.

"Lad..."

Demoman got closer to Scout, and put both hands on the boy's shoulders. However, the other was so focused on the task at hand that didn't notice it, and kept looking for the Spy. The older man stood there, waiting for Scout to react at any moment, when he felt danger coming their way. Soon enough, a shadow was on the window, getting inside the room through every little hole the window's frame had. However, that shadow had form: it wasn't flat, but had some volume to it, which meant...

"Lad! Stop it! he's trying to reach us, stop looking for him!"

Demoman hugged Scout, and focused on his own core. Soon, a soft, green glow covered his body, and little by little, got larger and sepparated from his body, as it formed an egg-shaped, green shield around them, with symbols very much like Scout's decorating it. The shadow reached the shield, but was unable to get past it. Demoman started shaking Scout, trying to make him snap out of it, but the kid was far into it. All Demoman could do was hold the shadow and prevent it from getting them.

As the shadow tried to get a hole to get in, a dark silhouette started to form in the biggest part of it that got in the room. Once fully formed into what looked human-like, Demoman couldn't help but stare at it in horror: it looked way too much to the creature his mentor and he locked away when he was younger: the Dreamcatcher. The name could sound silly for some people, but it was known for being one of the darker and most and powerful creatures in existence, that could get into someone's dreams and turn them into a nightmare. Once the person was suffering from it, the Dreamcatcher would get its way into the person's very core and infect it, slowly making said person get angrier and more aggressive, until at some point he or she would turn feral and feed the Dreamcatcher with other humans' hearts, which contained their cores.

Demoman started to panic, but his mind alerted him of something: if that was the real deal, then why was he being stopped by his shield? Demoman's power alone wasn't enough to stop that creature, so that meant...

"You're one of his children"

The silhouette smirked at him, changing into a younger version. In that moment, Demoman realized that form was not the real one: the real Dreamcatcher's child was somewhere else, projecting the shadow, probably the BLU Spy...

Demoman was thinking about it, when a gasp startled him. He then saw Scout, still with those blue marks around his eyes, but glowing less, staring at the silhouette in horror. Demoman focused back onto the dark figure in front of them, still trying to get past his shield, while he felt how Scout's grip on him tightened. That situation would have been awkward if it wasn't for the dark figure present in the room.

"What the heck is that?!"

Scout was trying very hard to get as far away as possible from that thing. Demoman was having a hard time staying calm and keeping Scout inside the shield. He leaned closer to Scout, so only the boy could hear him.

"Listen lad, if you move too much you'll get out of the shield, so stop. He's not real, he's just a projection of a creature"

Scout stopped and looked at him, between scared and curious.

"But then...what should we do? We're sitting ducks in here!"

The older man gave it a thought. Yes, they were pretty useless, since none of them had an offensive sixth sense to go against that. Still, he had his sword...safely stored in his room! Demoman looked around, trying to find anything to defend themselves with, when the shadows started creating holes in his shield. Of course, his shield had a limit, and once that limit was reached and surpassed, it started to fade away. Then he had a moment of inspiration.

"Hold on lad"

Scout looked at him, and before he could say anything, Demoman pushed his shield forwards, creating a wall that pushed the creature away enough for them to make a move. Demoman went towards the door, taking Scout by the arm, and leading him through the hallways. If someone was able to take that thing away was Medic. Even if he didn't trust the bastard right now and then, he didn't have a choice at all. He soon felt his shield fading away and the creature's shadow following them, using everything on it's path to reach them: floor, walls, ceiling, any surface it could hold it.

Demoman didn't look back for a second, he just focused on the task at hand; Scout, however, did look back while running, and while the older man was a bit annoyed at the fact that the boy couldn't focus, he was glad when he gave him every single move the shadow did, even if it was in terrified yelling. Once Demoman saw Medic's infirmary door he didn't care to knock on it, he just went inside, pushing Scout in the room as well and closing it.

"What are you two doing here?!"

Of course. Two in the morning, the doc would be there. That man looked like he never slept, but that wasn't Demoman's concern right now.

"Doc, there's a shadow chasing us, and we can't do anything against it. You have to push it away"

Medic gave him incredulous look, before shifting to annoyance.

"Look, Herr Demoman

, I'm not in the mood for your jokes right now. I know I made my mistake, but..."

Demoman didn't leave him choice: taking Medic by the shoulder, he put him right in front of the door, which was starting to leak the creature's shadow like black goo. In order to keep it at bay while Medic got a hold of himself, Demoman covered the door with the shield.

"This is not a joke" said Demoman to the now startled Medic "this is real, Doc, and either you help us, or we all will have our worst night, and probably will never have a day again"

Medic looked at the door. Seeing all that black goo trying to reach them was both fascinating and terrifying, and he didn't know what to do. He never used his sixth sense until that moment. Should he concentrate? Think about taking that thing away? Wishing upon a star? He had no clue.

"I have no idea what to do!"

For once, fear was clouding his mind and Demoman noticed it in his voice. Of course Medic, always as far as possible from magic, wouldn't know what to do to activate his sixth sense. While Demoman tried to explain him what to do, Scout 'saw' something behind him. He went towards the window and saw the BLU Spy looking back at him. However, his look wasn't aggressive or mocking; Scout saw something else in the man's eyes, but what was it escaped him. A noise behind him made him look around to see Demoman and the Medic arguing with each other.

"I don't know how to do that Herr Demoman! I'm trying, but nothing is coming out of it!"

Demoman was having a hard time keeping his tone cool.

"Well try harder! You're a grown up man, stop acting like a kid!"

That was the last straw. Medic's fear was turned into anger. He? Acting like a child? No man had the courage to say something like that to him. He looked at the shadow trying to get past the shield, and then at Demoman.

"You better be ready" said with a darker voice.

Demoman had a second to react, and grabbed Scout, pulling him close and encasing them in a shield. Doing that made the shield on the door disappear, but Medic was ready for it. Focusing all his anger in the creature that was disturbing his calm, free time, Medic let go of whatever energy the Demoman was trying. The action translated into several red, glowing orbs, which where being created all over the place.

"You dare come into my sacred place at this ungodly hour; you bring chaos into my peace, and you DARE to cross that door?" The orbs were getting bigger and redder. "Then I'm afraid you must leave..."

Instantly, all the orbs turned into stakes, and faster than a bullet they started to pierce into the shadow. Hundreds of stakes attacked the dark form in front of them, creating several injuries around it's form, even if it wasn't real. That was the Rejector's power: hurt everything, reaching the main body through any of it's shadows or powers, making it go away. It wasn't enough to kill a creature, but yes to make it stay away if it didn't want another round. Soon, the shadow retreated, and they were left in silence inside the room.

Little by little, Medic's orbs vanished. Once the last one disappeared, Medic turned around to face both men, who flinched at the doctor's look on them.

"You two...out. Explanations will come tomorrow, for now, I don't want to see your faces"

Scout quickly nodded, and taking Demoman by the arm, he ran away from the room, making Demoman drop his shield. He didn't even try to look back and see if the BLU Spy was still there, he just ran for their lives. Once back in his room, Scout let out a long sigh. Demoman, however, was between scared and glad they counted on an ally as strong as Medic...at least once his anger had dissipated.

He sat on Scout's bed, while the boy went towards the window to check if the Spy was still there. He found nobody, so he assumed the man just left after his shadow was brutally attacked.

"Lad...what exactly did you do?"

Demoman was looking at him, serious. Scout thought about what to answer, but he guessed the honest truth would be the best one.

"I was trying to get some info from him, you know, the BLU Spy, since he's all weird and stuff. I tried to check on the other base, when all this crap happened"

Demoman stood up and went towards him at a calm pace, but still serious.

"And why exactly did you try that at this hour in the morning?"

Scout flinched a bit. He wanted to help, but Demoman was right: that wasn't the correct hour to try something like that. Scout lowered his gaze to the side, guilt flooding in his mind as he realized he just made another mistake. He sure was an useless brat.

Demoman recognized that look all too well: he used to do the exact same thing when his mentor gave him a talk for a mistake he did, when all he tried to do was helping in anything. He sighed, and placed a hand on Scout's shoulder. He sure wasn't like his mentor, leading Scout through the whole process of having a sixth sense, a thing his mentor made sure to fully explain to him. He just threw the kid against the danger without teaching him anything.

Scout once again flinched at the touch, but his gaze was kept on the floor, and even shifted more to the side, avoiding at all cost Demoman's eye. His face showed frustration, guilt and shame, and it wasn't even his fault, at least not 100%. Thanks to him, Demoman now knew what they were against, but still couldn't just said that out loud. What would his mentor do in this situation?

"Look lad...I'm glad you want to help me, but you could get yourself in a dangerous situation going solo, you know?"

Those weren't the correct words, apparently, as Scout nodded but looked like his guilt was building up to a hurting point. Demoman sighed: this was way too hard. How did his mentor hold everything up with him?

With patience.

Scout was still young and careless, he was learning and needed a role model to follow. As far as Demoman knew, Scout never met his father, but he himself wasn't ready to be someone's parent; besides, he wasn't that old.

"What I'm trying to say is...you're the first guy I've met with a power like mine since my mentor left. Yeah, the Doc has one as well, but he...he's complicated. I can talk about these things with you, and...well"

MAN he was terrible at this! At least Scout was slightly looking at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I just...I don't want you to get hurt or anything like that"

There, he just said it. Totally awkward. Yep, he was very bad at that kind of situation. Make someone explode? Done. Give a talk to a young man? Eh...not really his forte. Still, when he looked down at Scout he realized he just said what had to be said: Scout was looking at him between surprised and glad. The lad only wanted to be helpful, but what Demoman would have never thought is that Scout actually wanted someone to care. Maybe that was why he was always being so loud and obnoxious: he wanted to let everyone know he was there, he was a living thing and he needed someone.

Tha realitzation felt like an ice water bucket falling on him. Since they were always in a war, fighting over pointless thing, none of them remembered they were still human, and not all of them were full grown up men. Demoman felt inside him something growing: his self confidence was getting bigger and stronger, and he found himself being able to deal with the situation.

It was his time to be the mentor.

"Tomorrow, after the fighting, I'll show you a trick or two to kick those creature's arses, how's that sound?"

Scout's answer came really quickly: with a smile from ear to ear, and a 'heck yeah!' the deal was sealed. Demoman patted Scout's shoulder, before going towards the door.

"I don't think that thing will attack us again, the Doc gave him a lesson, so I'll go back to my dorm. Try get some sleep lad"

Scout thought about telling him what he saw in the BLU Spy, but refrained from doing so, and gave Demoman his good nights. The older man answered him back with the same and left. Once alone, Scout sat on his bed. On one hand, he was happy someone finally gave a 'ship' about him, but on the other he realized he made a mistake he shouldn't repeat. From that moment on, he would only use his sixth sense when Demoman said so, at least until he knew how to use it.

He lied down on his bed, covering himself and getting comfortable, and closed his eyes. He needed rest after all that situation.

...

BLU Spy was crawling back to his own base. He had received some wounds from his shadows thanks to that damn Rejector. He would have to be careful with him; at least he knew what he was against. A Seeker, a Shielder, a Healer and a Rejector. Lucky him, the Healer didn't want to deal with the rest, and he probably didn't even know about the rest sixth senses running around the base, which was a good point. Still, a Seeker, a Shielder and a Rejector were three dangerous things to go against, so he had to be careful.

But nobody would push him away from his target. He had been looking everywhere for someone of his kind and now he had found him, he wasn't going to back away.

Even if he was half human, half Dreamcatcher.


	9. Can you keep a secret?

**It's been a long time since last update, sorry. practices, class, tests, homework, job...yep, free time is overrated.**

 **Well! Thanks everyone for the reviews!**  
 **Also,** **Bluestonewings, the sixth sense classes aren't based in anything really, just in what I needed in the story. I needed someone to look for creatures, someone to protect, someone to attack and someone to heal. If I put the healing powers in Medic that would have been too obvious, but the attacking powers? To one of the less "attacking" classes? I thought it was a better idea to see Medic out of his comfort zone. Scout was a bit easy as the Seeker (my bad!), Sniper, as the looner as he is, being a healer would also put him out of his comfort zone. Demoman was the teacher-mentor type I wanted, so protecting was good for him.**  
 **Other classes of sixth sense will be...spoiler! :).**

 **Anyway, lets move onto the story. Thanks again for reading, really.**

...

Sniper enjoyed the calm morning in that base. Since he spent most of his time outside in his van, his mornings were silent...mostly, and overall, peaceful. Still, once he opened his eyes, he couldn't help but remember the new BLU Spy. That man had crept up on him, pinned him against his own van and told him to stay silent about his power. Still, he knew he owed his team at least that much, so in an internal conflict, he was between telling the truth or remain silent.

As he got up from his bed, he noticed those worries were creeping in his dreams. His past nightmare had a shadowy figure in it, being a noisy noise rather than anything else, telling him to stay put and say nothing, probably the result of worrying too much. Maybe if he spilled the beans it would disappear, besides, what could that Spy do to him? He had Respawn to fix him up whenever he died, and he doubted the other man would do anything worse than killing him...right?

Sniper dressed himself , prepared some coffee and went outside to enjoy the first beams of sunlight. At that hour in the morning, a normal person would have been waking up slowly, but he already could hear noise coming from the base: his team was getting ready for the daily fight, so he had to go in the sooner or later. He drank his coffee in a few sips, left the cup in the sink and headed towards the supply room inside the base. On his way he found every single team member, all of them saying their 'good morning's to him, as he simply answered with a short nod, only to be polite (one of his rules).

Once he arrived at the resupply room, however, he found Medic already in there, fumbling around his medical supplies. He looked angry and a bit stressed, and Sniper could have just ignored him, but something in him wouldn't stop saying that he would regret not doing anything in that moment, so he went towards the doctor.

"Hum...you alright there mate?"

Medic turned around so quickly Sniper took a step back just in case. Medic really looked angry and stressed, and the taller man didn't know if he should just drop the question and leave. The doctor sighed, running a hand through his face and hair, relaxing for a moment to answer.

"Yes Herr Sniper, I'm okay...well no, I'm not okay!" His calm expression went back to anger in a second "those idiots can't even take care of themselves that have to come at me at an ungodly hour in the morning! And with that kind of problems!"

Sniper neither knew the kind of problems Medic was talking about, nor the people who dared to molest him early in the morning, but nonetheless he knew he could do something to at least calm the man's spirit. While Medic was looking away, still shouting about how troublesome his team mates were, Sniper closed his eyes and focused on his own core. Once he felt he had enough energy to do this little act, he touched Medic's shoulder, who now was giving him his back, and a white energy started to flow through Sniper's arm, creating a wonderful pattern along the limb towards Medic's shoulder.

Upon reaching him, Medic's eyes opened and he stood still, looking straight-forward. The lines of white energy flooded through his shoulder towards his neck and head, and once it reached his brain and filled it, Medic let out a long, calming sigh, like someone who just took a very big problem out of his shoulders, closing his eyes.

Upon seeing that, Sniper broke the touch and dispersed his energy around his body to not raise any suspicion, and took a few steps back, looking at the older man. Medic opened his eyes, this time slower, taking his time to register everything that just happened: his anger just subsided on its own, without any effort from his part, and now he felt at peace, like someone just touched him and took away all the anger and frustration, only to leave calm. Looking around, he found Sniper, and for a moment he didn't know what the man was doing there, but soon remembered they were talking about the night before.

"...Herr Sniper?"

Sniper's alarm went off in his head. Usually normal people would just shrug it off and thank him for saying nice words, but Medic's reaction was different, like the Spy's: that man knew he had done something special to him. On his side, Medic had noticed the warm energy flooding through him, something so pure and nice no man could be angry after receiving it. And it was magic as well, but how? Why? Wasn't magic supposed to be complicated and, over all, evil?

Without a word, Sniper went to take his weapons and leave the resupply room, he could come back later once the team was in there and the battle started. For now, he had to hide. Who would know Medic was related to magic like him? In what way, he didn't know and didn't want to, he just ran away from that room, but the damage was done: he had promised the Spy he wouldn't use his power inside the base. Damn his Healer nature, always driven to help others in a time of need. That was why he wanted to be alone, so the urge wouldn't appear and he could stay hidden.

He ran past everyone on his team again, and when he thought he was safe he bumped into Scout. Both of them fell onto the ground, each one on his side. Sniper recovered first, and saw the younger man trying to realize what just happened. He was waiting for the usual answer from the boy, the one that involved yelling and saying how stupid he was. But instead, what came out surprised him greatly.

"Wow, sorry man, I was spacing out a bit"

Sniper looked at Scout in shock, as the boy was recovering from their little accident. Scout, on his hand, after rubbing his head a bit looked at Sniper. Upon finding surprise in his features, he shook his head a bit, getting annoyed by that silent answer. He was able to be polite every now and then, besides, he had to start acting like an adult if he wanted to gain some respect around there...even if that was as hard as it could get.

"What?! I'm not always yelling and being annoying, you know!"

Now that was a more normal answer. Sniper stood up and offered a hand to the angry Scout as a silent apology for his reaction. Scout accepted it, and helped by the older man, he stood up as well. Sniper was about to let go, but Scout kept the grip, looking at him, then at the hand, and then back at him. The taller man felt uncomfortable and was trying to let go in a polite way, when Scout's words froze him in place.

"You're the white light..."

Sniper looked at him in shock. White light? When did the boy see that in him? Was he that careless?

Scout, however, was in shock for another different reason. He saw that white light outside the night before, but since he was looking for the BLU Spy he paid it no mind. But now he had it in front of him as Sniper's aura, he felt like an achievement to have found such wonderful light.

"Look, mate, I don't know what you're talking about. If my van's light annoys you sorry, but I can't do anything about that"

Scout laughed a bit at those words. So the man was trying to hide, well, he could keep a secret.

"Is okay dude, I have a blue light. So you have a sixth sense too? I can keep the secret, no worries, I won't tell a soul"

Sniper's jaw could have reached the floor if it wasn't properly attached to his skull. This kid, all of sudden, was talking about the sixth sense and lights like it was no big deal, and he expected him to tell everything? Heck no! Sniper forced his hand out of Scout's grip with a sudden, quick move, and pointed his finger on the younger man's chest.

"I don't want to talk about it, you hear me? I don't care if you have a sixth sense as well, or if it's blue, yellow, purple or the whole rainbow. You say any of this to anyone, and I'll make sure your bat gets lost in the middle of the desert, you hear me?"

Scout heard the whole thing in silence, but once Sniper finished his threat he held both hands in the air, in a defensive way.

"Hey man! No need to be like that, geez! I know we have to keep this as a secret, but you don't have to be like that"

He then went around Sniper to continue on his way while saying things like 'the nerve of some people'. Sniper sighed, his secret may have been discovered, but at least nobody believed the brat...wait, a white light?!

Sniper turned around and ran after Scout. He grabbed his arm and put him away from sight. Scout yelped for a moment at the sudden move, but was quickly silenced by a hand on the mouth. Once he recovered, he took the hand away with ease, but not the hand on the arm.

"What the heck man?"

He was whispering, specially at the sign of silence from Sniper. The taller man looked at him straight in the eyes, a very uncommon thing from him, before formulating the question.

"Lad...are you a Seeker?"

Now that was the moment for Scout to get his own shock. Sniper knew about all those things? Dude! If they could have another member in the party to go against the BLU Spy that would be awesome! Still, he didn't know if it was okay to share that kind of information with someone else besides Demoman and Medic. What would Demoman do in this case?

Nothing, he already screwed up, AGAIN.

Scout slowly nodded, answering the question.

Sniper knew a bit about the whole sixth sense thing and types of auras thanks to his grandfather, who taught him about the whole picture in order to prepare him in case anything paranormal happened, but he would have never imagined he would find a Seeker. They were usually hard to find since they always tried to hide from everyone, since they were able to find anything anywhere if trained correctly. Also, there was the fact that a Seeker never was full human, so...the boy was human with something else? Interesting.

"Don't tell anyone, okay? I never said this to you, alright?"

Scout looked like he just spilled the milk, broke the eggs and ate the cake all at the same time. Well, none of them wanted this known, so a pact could be made.

"Deal, as long as you don't say anything about me, my mouth will be closed, but if you say anything..."

Scout gulped. That tone in Sniper's voice meant business, and not the good one. He nodded quickly and that seemed enough for the older man, since he released him, allowing the boy to run away, or stay there and look stupid. Scout opted for the first option and ran away to the Resupply room, but the information had been shared. He couldn't even tell Demoman, or Sniper would start singing.

On his side, finding out about something as huge as that meant a lot for Sniper. Maybe there were others with sixth sense nearby if the kid knew that much about it; someone was probably teaching him. Now the question was: who?

Then he realized he just broke BLU Spy's pact.

"Well...if the wanker doesn't know"

He started to go back to the Resupply, hoping there would be more people around there by the time he arrived, when something stopped him in his tracks. Looking down he found a shadow climbing up his leg, and before he could react or do anything, a familiar voice talked to him.

"I'm afraid the 'wanker' knows, mon ami..."

Sniper wasn't even able to answer back before darkness took over him.


	10. The creature's son

**Thanks everyone for the reviews!**  
 **Welp, I managed to write this down and we are finally getting some answers around heeereee. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

...

Sniper's eyes slowly opened, adjusting to his surroundings with some effort. He had been in darkness a second ago...or maybe an hour ago? He didn't know or could tell, he was too confused. Looking to the side he realized he was on a bed, a very, very, veeeery white bed. In fact, looking past the bed he saw that the small table next to him was white as well. As his eyes focused, he found more elements in the room to be white, which weirded him out to the best. Once he felt his body enough to move he sat up and contemplated everything, trying to recognize the room, when he saw his own clothes were white as well, and not just a version of his usual clothes, but a plain shirt with long sleeves and simple pants, no shoes or socks, his hat and sunglasses also missing.

He put his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, slowly, listening to any sound that could tell him where he was, but silence answered back. No sounds, no colors, a closed and unknown room. Since he was a man of world, his first reaction was to try and recall the last events before he passed out, and he found that remembering them were, in fact, quite easy: the accident with Medic, the conversation with Scout and BLU Spy's attack. So this was the hell he promised if he spilled the beans? An entire, very white room for him? Well that was boring. Maybe his hell was to be bored for the rest of his life, but since he was a patient man, he could spend a long time before getting bored of it.

He didn't have to wait for long before a shadow crept under the door into the room, taking the form of BLU Spy. Sniper kept his distance from him, just in case his hell was about to start, but Spy didn't move a muscle once he was fully formed, just stared at him. That unnerved the taller man even more, since he wanted to be left alone and unnoticed, and being stared at like that was out of his comfort zone. He took a step back only to find the bed missing, finding a chair instead.

"Please, take a seat"

Spy offered, and when Sniper looked back at him he saw that Spy was already sitting on another chair like his. He complied, sitting down onto a quite comfortable chair, he had to recognize. Then he focused all his attention on the man in front of him.

"I'm sure you know why you are here, am I right?"

Sniper nodded. Spy crossed his legs, and then proceeded.

"You see, I had to give you your worst nightmare, but thing is...I can't"

Upon seeing the other man's reaction as surprise, Spy continued.

"You see, I may not be the best creature on existence, but I have my code. In fact, every creature living on this world must follow that code. It's a set of simple rules that, if followed, everything will be more or less okay. One of them oncerns you"

Sniper didn't realize that he was leaning forward. That picked his interest. A rule about Healers? Well now that was new.

"It says that no one should even harm a Healer, for they are the ones that keep us alive. So I can't harm you, but, I can keep you captive here for as long as I need"

That made the other man shift in his chair. So he was going to get out of this room, but not until Spy got what he was looking for? Well, he didn't like being caged for the sake of it. In fact, he didn't like being caged at all, he wanted to be free to go wherever he wanted. It was bad enough he had to stay inside a base.

"So you pretend to keep me here in this...why is so white?"

Spy smiled.

"For all I know, you humans find white to be a color of purity and goodness"

Sniper sighed annoyed.

"Yeah well, but you don't have to put it in every single inch of the bloody room! Even on my clothes!"

Spy chuckled a bit. He had to admit, the man had his own thing, and maybe he overdid a bit with the lack of color, but that would be a small punishment for sharing precious information when he was told not to.

"Also, where am I? Where is this place?"

The masked man looked at him, seeing the expectation in the other's eyes. He could share that much with him, he couldn't escape anyways.

"This is a dream, a place I've created inside your subconsciousness to keep you away from reality, a prison in your own mind if you want. In real life you're surrounded by my shadows on the couch of my personal room, which makes me think...I could do anything to you and you couldn't stop me"

Sniper stood up like someone just stabbed his butt and went towards the Spy. He stopped on his track a few inches from the seated man and went around, moving his arms as his mouth was trying to create words.

"So you have me like the bloody sleeping beauty on a couch, unable to move or react, in your PERSONAL room, inside the enemy base?! Mate, if I dragged you in my van, put your smelly body next to a few jars of piss and left you there to rot, how would you feel?"

That won a twisted smile from Spy, who got even more comfortable, crossing his finger under his chin, watching amused how the man in front of him was having troubles imagining all the situation he was in, and even making a funny comparison. Since time didn't exist in dreams, or at least not in the same way, he could hold the man in there for longer than he really needed, only to see his reactions to differents things he did. But he had other matters in his hands, more important than keeping a man (a funny one) trapped in a dream.

"You don't have to worry, I'm taking good care of your body. You just have to stay here until I let you go and that's all. You're a patient man, right? You'll know how to wait. You have my word no harm will be done to you, body or mind"

Sniper fell down onto the chair, trying to let the whole thing sink in. He was trapped in a very horrible way: inside his own mind. How could anyone escape from that? He could try pinching his arm, but he doubted that would do anything. He looked down in a sign of defeat, to which Spy smiled and stood up, going towards him with his characteristic slow and steady pace. He put a hand on the other man's shoulder.

"It won't take long, I promise"

And with that he left, leaving Sniper alone in the room with his own thoughts.

...

The fight of the day had been hard, specially for the fact that they were lacking one member who just decided to disappear right before the whole thing started. For the first time in some time, RED lost, and what followed the failure was a slow, painful round of useless tries to get away from the incoming enemy. Once everything ended, they went back inside their base from the Resupply room, all heads down with shame and anger from losing a fight. Demoman put his weapons in their proper place and went towards the kitchen; some alcohol would lessen the incoming headache and depressing feeling of losing. But as he was about to get in the kitchen a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Turning around he found Medic, who looked more than frustrated: he looked worried.

"Herr Demoman, may I have a word with you?"

The question didn't leave place for a no, for it included some urgency in it. Taking him away from the rest, Medic led Demoman through the hallways towards his infirmary. Once inside, he locked the door so no one would interrupt them and offered the other man a chair. Demoman sat on it without asking anything and waited for the doctor to take his place behind the desk.

"Herr Demoman, I think we may have another one like us in our team"

Demoman looked surprised at him. Having a sixth sense didn't mean you would know if someone else like you was around, unless you were a Seeker. Scout probably noticed it but the lad said nothing. As to why Demoman didn't know.

"Herr Sniper this morning, before the fight, touched me while I was stressed and a second later I was feeling calm, like the anger just disappeared, leaving no trace of existence. I did notice something flowing from him to me, reaching my brain and-"

He was cut off by the other man standing up all of sudden. Demoman was looking at him with shock and, at least for Medic, that wasn't a good sign, specially since it was coming from someone who understood about this.

"You're telling me that he calmed you down with his energy?..."

Medic nodded, and Demoman ran a hand over his face and head. If it was because stress or worry the doctor didn't know, but he knew that whatever that energy was, it was good, and that's all he needed to know. As for Demoman, another thing was running through his head. They had a Healer nearby all the time! The amount of things they could have easily solved if they knew! Healers were the only humans that could fix a lot of things with one simple touch, and they had one! But it was Sniper, the man who never wanted company unless it was in the fight or to bring him some news. He was going to be hard to convince...wait, Sniper?

"Didn't he disappear today?"

Medic nodded, crossing his fingers over the desk.

"I'm afraid we may not be the only ones who know about what he can do"

That set off all of Demoman's alarms.

"BLU Spy..."

...

Scout was having one of the hardest times in someone's life: a decision. He had sensed Sniper's white light when he was near the enemy base, which meant he was inside, but he promised not to tell a soul about it, so...what? Should he go after the tall as heck man by himself, or break the promise? Well, Sniper was probably having troubles inside that base, and if he got help for him maybe, just maybe, he would forgive him. Yep, that sounded like a good plan.

Except it was Sniper. That man was so weird and lonely he probably would just see the fact that Scout broke the promise. So he had to go alone. He sighed, he would probably get a scold from Demoman, but that was better than losing another possible member of the group, wasn't it? He took a small gun and went towards the base's entrance when someone hugged him from behind.

"OHHEYWHATHEHECKWHATSGOINGON?!"

A series of mumbles answered his questions, and as he looked behind he found Pyro being all happy, hugging him for no reason. Scout sighed, still half scared for the fact that he was being hugged by that crazy guy. He patted Pyro's arm a bit, when the pyromaniac released him and nodded towards the exit. Scout looked towards there as well, and then back at Pyro.

"You wanna come with me?"

Pyro nodded.

"But...it's a dangerous mission. I'm going to see if I can bring Snipes back"

Pyro shrugged like no big deal.

"Alright, but if you die and Respawn is your own fault, okay? Don't come at me later complaining about how I put you in danger, alright?"

A thumbs up sealed the deal and they headed outside. They used the afternoon shadows to get as close as possible to the enemy's base without being spotted, reaching the wall and going towards the back door, never breaking contact with the building to avoid being seen as much as possible. Once they reached said door Scout took the doorknob and was about to open it when shadows under him engulfed his body in seconds. When he opened his eyes he saw they were inside the base already, in a very well hidden spot, behind some crates.

"What the...?"

He looked at Pyro, who was silently giggling at Scout's reaction.

"Y-you...you are...wait, hold on, you're like BLU Spy?!"

That came out as a loud whisper, but not enough for anyone to hear them. Pyro tilted its head to the side, as if asking why was he comparing to that damned blue bug, but still nodded. Scout's jaw could have hit the floor if the crate wasn't in the way, and he was trying hard to make sense out of what was happening to him. So he was with a Dreamcatcher...another freaking creature like the BLU Spy, but this one was on his team...he was dealing with a paranormal creature who was insane, loved fire and could create and merge with shadows on his own will.

Well, that was very freaking cool if anyone asked him.

"Alright, think you could move us around the base without being seen?"

Pyro gave him a thumbs up and Scout nodded back. Then he closed his eyes, trying to focus in Sniper's aura, trying to find the room he was being held. It didn't take long for him to see a white light inside a room on the second floor. Scout opened his eyes and looked at Pyro, pointing upwards, to what the other...man? nodded. Taking Scout by the arm, Pyro merged into it's own shadow and both of them went through the darkness of the rooms towards the second floor.

It actually took some time to reach the place since they had to stop inside a still shadow everytime a BLU team member was around, because a moving shadow wouldn't look very convincing. Once they reached the second floor, Pyro released the boy from his shadow. The younger man gasped, as if he was choking inside and needed air. In fact, he was able to breathe, actually, it was the only thing he was able to do: engulfed in the shadow meant not being able to move, hear or see anything and staying in a state in which you didn't know if you were awake or asleep. Very confusing, but necessary.

After getting his self in check, Scout closed his eyes, focusing again on Sniper's aura, when he saw Demoman and Medic's aura getting close to the BLU base.

"Oh no...I'm sooo going to die for this one..."

Pyro tilted its head looking at him.

"Medic and Demoman are coming. If they find me here I'm not going to see the end of it"

Pyro shruged, and then placed a hand over Scout's eyes, closing them, as if to asking for him to focus on to the task of finding Sniper. Scout did so, since he didn't have an option, and found the aura behind a door close to them, but when he opened his eyes he realized what door was: the fancy pants Spy's room door. Fantastic.

For Pyro didn't seem to be a problem, as he took Scout's hand and pulled him over to the door, making sure nobody was nearby, and then got both of them in by going under the door, shadow-style. The moment Scout stepped out of the it, gasping as always, he found what they were looking for: Sniper was lying on the couch, with several shadows around and over him, keeping him somehow cagged. The shadows moved like Pyro's, but something in them seemed off for Scout. Wasting no time, he went towards the couch to free Sniper and get out of there, when something pulled him away and against a wall, hitting his back hard.

Pyro was about to go rescue him when, from the darkest corner of the room BLU Spy emerged and took his human form in front of him, keeping Scout against the wall with several shadows. Spy focused his attention on Pyro, an expression between relief, surprise and a bit of anger.

"Brother...can't believe I finally found you. But I must admit, I'm quite surprised that you would involve yourself with these characters. Makes me wonder why..."

Pyro was having none of it, and he threw his shadows against Spy's, who blocked them without any trouble. Spy tsked, shaking his head a bit.

"My my, you're still too young to try and play with the older kids. I'm afraid you have a lot to learn"

When Pyro tried to retreat his own shadows Spy took him in the blink of an eye and put him on a chair, keeping it in place.

"I'm saying brother, but you could be my sister, who knows...well, sit there while I dispose of these...problems"

Scout was moving as much as possible against the shadow holding him to break free, when he noticed they were moving on their own accord, taking him away from the wall. In a second he was facing the Spy, being held a few inches from the floor. Spy was looking at him like the parents who scold a child.

"I told you not to do that, garçon, don't you ever listen?" he sighed "I'm afraid I have to punish you a bit, so this doesn't happen again..."

The shadows took Scout by his arms and legs, pulling them in four directions, still holding him. Scout's color was drained from his face, realizing where this was going. If the Spy was going to play with him like he was some sort of bug, pull until the legs brroke, it was going to be a very painful and hard to pass moment. And all he could do was see lights. Again, he screwed, but at least he had the exact location of Sniper. Going through Respawn wouldn't be an issue, but the slow death...

"Oh, I see you're scared. It's okay, it's normal to be scared in a situation like this. Normally I wouldn't do a thing such as violent and gory as this, but you leave me no other option"

Scout's words were hold in his mouth by a sudden, strong pull in every direction. His muscles were quickly screaming in pain as the hold was strong and impossible to escape from. To make things worse, one shadow covered his mouth, keeping him from screaming. The pulling was kept on the same level, not going further: Spy was clearly enjoying this, as Pyro kept trying to get out of its restrains and help the boy.

...

Demoman and Medic arrived just in time to see the shadow emerging from the window. Apparently, Spy had to have some fun in there if some of his shadow were getting away from the room. Without thinking twice, Demoman took Medic by the waist, receiving a colorful set of german insults, and put a sticky bomb under his feet.

"Hold on Doc!"

Before Medic could react, they were launched upwards towards the window, which broke upon impact. Both of them entered the room doing an amazing noise it was strange nobody in the base noticed. The other members would be there soon, so they had to hurry up and take their two...three team mates?

While Spy was recovering from the sudden act, Demoman went towards Pyro, trying to get the shadows off of it, but the firebug insisted on him looking behind. Demoman complied, and his surprise turned into anger at the sight in front of him. Medic followed his gaze and his expression turned serious, quite angry. In front of them Spy was still coughing out the debris from the impact and, at his feet, Scout was lying on the ground, his left arm missing, being held by the shadows hovering over him.

"You damn son of a b*tch..."

Spy opened his eyes to see an angry Demoman charging towards him, sword in hand and eyepatch about to fall off. The green eye glowing with furious energy in a darker shade of its proper self, as its owner was letting go all the anger inside him. The masked man had seconds to dodge the incoming attack, before launching his shadows against him. Demoman put his sword between him and the enemy, holding the shadows and even cutting some of them in the process, as to which Spy's answer was a sign of pain.

So he could feel what the shadows received.

Demoman took that as his cue to stab a shadow that was nearby, and Spy had to bit his lip to not cry out. So he got hurt, but not as much as being directly hurt. That was enough for Demoman, as he started to throw his sword at any shadow that got nearby.

Meanwhile, Medic got to Scout, already inspecting the wound. It hadn't been a clean cut, but rather a pulling until the arm tore apart. He grimaced at the thought: not even him was that cruel. Then he got a sight of the sleeping Sniper on the couch. That was another element to have in mind, and with Demoman distracting Spy, he had no options but to deal with everything himself. First things first, he had to stop Scout's bleeding: he tore off some of his coat to make a tourniquet around Scout's stump, and then took the boy in his arms, taking him away from the fight and near the couch with Sniper. That at least would keep both of them out of harm. Next he had to go near Pyro and free him, but the fight was in the middle.

Demoman was having more and more troubles to keep up with Spy's shadows: they were multiplying, never stopping for a break, never getting tired of attacking. It was endless, but his energy was not, and Spy knew that. Demoman decided then to try and dodge as many of the shadows as possible and charge directly at the man. But the moment he was about to get in between two of the largest shadows, a small one took him by the neck, pulling him backwards onto the wall.

"Herr Demoman!"

Medic took his saw and charged against the back of the Spy, but he too was pulled from the floor by his right foot, upside down.

"Well well, it seems I'm too much for...three men? Not counting the one asleep" he sighed in a somewhat mocking way "This didn't have to happen if you let me take my sibling and just-!"

In a second, Medic fell onto the floor and Demoman was free. Both of them looked at Spy, who was staring straight-forward at nothing in a shocked expression. None of them realized what was going on, but soon Spy turning around to look behind him revealed what was happened.

Spy's shock amplified when he found that what he through it was a momentum of confusion was, in fact, real.

Leaning on the couch for support, with his right arm around one of this shadows was Scout, bitting on it hard. To both Demoman and Medic that was unusual but not as shocking as Spy made it look; still, soon they too had to show their surprise. Spy's shock turned into fear when Scout looked up at him, his blue eyes turned into cat-like, yellowish eyes with black irises, his teeth all sharped and stabbing his shadow. Not being able to move, Spy's mind got a glimpse of the only other creature he saw having those same eyes, the most dangerous one on existence. He could only see it one second, before Scout tore a big piece of his shadow off, swallowing it. Spy's mind raced to get the pain under control, but time was against him.

He had the creature's son in front of him.


	11. Traveler

**Well well! It seems I'm getting some inspiration now that practices are finally ending! Also, thank you all for the reviews, I really appreciate them, they make me want to continue this. Still, I'm opened to constructive criticism, since I really want to get better at this and at english language.**

 **SO! No more delays, lets dive in!**

...

Silence fell on the room, nobody daring to move one muscle. Even Pyro, the only one away from any attack, was frozen on the chair. It didn't even notice that Spy's shadows stopped holding it down, only to lie around the chair as if they were lifeless. Medic stood where he was, looking as shocked as anyone else. BLU Spy, while looking at the boy in front of him, was trying to get his shadows away from him, slowly to not anger him more.

Demoman, on his own, had his own shock going on. For some reason, even lacking an arm, Scout all of sudden had turned into the most dangerous element of the room; something inside him was saying that. More than saying, screaming it like an agonizing animal.

For seconds that felt like hours nobody move, but then the apparent calm was broken by a sudden movement. Without any warning, Scout launched himself against the Spy, with his hand in front of him, trying to grab the masked man. Spy found himself with a furious stare and a very sharp set of teeth going his way, so he quickly reacted and shoved the boy aside with one shadow. He knew Respawn would pick him if he died, but if anything a Dreamcatcher knew more than anything was that if another creature can eat your shadows, don't allow it.

Scout hit the wall next to Pyro hard, who inmediately stood up and went towards him. Spy, in the meantime, looked at Demoman, who was still trying to figure out what was going on.

"As you can see, I'm not the most dangerous monster in the room"

Demoman snapped out of his shock with those words and looked at Spy. His anger came back in an instant and taking an attacking pose he was about to charge against Spy when the other man held him again.

"Oh non, I'm afraid this is NOT my problem...I've found my sibling, like I wanted, now your little boy is all yours"

Before Demoman could even stab the shadow that was holding him, Spy spread his shadows everywhere, trapping everyone in their darkness. Demoman felt the constriction of having all his body being trapped in such way, but the feeling was short, for soon he was standing outside the BLU base, between both bases. He looked around and found Medic kneeling down on the floor, trying to recover from the sudden move on Spy's side; Sniper was starting to wake up, confused and dizzy, looking around; Pyro was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn bastard...he took Pyro"

Looking around some more he found Scout lying on his side on the floor. The tourniquet was doing its job, but the blood loss was leaving the boy weak and going towards death. Demoman went close to him, but the moment he knelt down and tried to touch him Scout turned around and tried to bite him. 'Of course' thought Demoman 'whatever you are, lad, it's feral...'. He kept his position, receiving a hissing sound from the boy, with growls from time to time and little sound of pain. Feral or not, he was feeling the wound and every single bruise his body had received.

The older man looked down at Scout with a sad gaze: he should have been feeling mad because the kid disobeyed him again, but the state he was in now didn't leave room for a lecture. Then he noticed something weird. Holding the boy's head down with one hand, he turned him around a bit to see better.

"Oh God..."

Right there, going from Scout's base of the neck downwards, was a trail of beautiful, shining, baby blue scales, some of them going towards the shoulders as well. It wasn't a very marked trail, but they were there, forming themselves from Scout's skin. He touched one, only to find out it fell off quite easily, leaving a cut-like wound. Scout made a pained noise between growls, and looked at him angrier than before. So the scales were forming, but they were still too weak to stay in their proper place.

"Oh lad..."

Demoman felt lucky that Medic was busy with Sniper before going for Scout. He supposed the man was waiting for Respawn to do his job, since a severed arm was harder to fix with the medigun, specially when the arm itself was missing. He had a few suspicions about what Scout could be, but his brain wasn't working very efficiently right now. He knew Seekers were always either a creature, or a human mixed with a creature, for only a paranormal could feel that well another aura's trail, but he was expecting for the boy to be any kind of harmless creature who's dangerous demeanor came from his human side.

The man sighed sadly, his emotions getting in the way of his hunter's duty. There were a lot of rules in that world of hunting paranormal beings, but one of the most important was that if you found any child from a predatory creature that was over the normal level of danger well...you had to destroy it. Permanently. No matter if the child was a newborn or fours years old, you had to kill it before it could grow up enough to have all his features developed. And the situation at hand demanded for the rule to be executed.

He knew where those scales were coming from, maybe not the exact same color, but there was only another paranormal being who had that pattern of scales on the back; a creature everyone knew but nobody gave it name yet, one of a kind who would always attack anyone who got too close. But that wasn't what it made him dangerous, oh no, the worst part was that he could entirely look like a human being, trick the victim into following him anywhere, and once there was water nearby...

Demoman flinched at the thought of all those limbs grabbing the victim to tore the body apart slowly and painfully. Yes, that creature was smart, so smart and socunning that no one had been able to stop him yet. And for some reason, he had a child, and that child had survived hidden in a family of eight brothers, and nobody had killed him for twenty-one years, allowing the child to grow up and...

He closed his eyes, the grip on Scout still firm but not as strong as before. The boy was losing strenght with every push he tried to do to escape, having a very slow death. Demoman put the boy back on his back to hide the scales as he heard Medic and Sniper coming closer.

"Are you going to let him Respawn or will he have to go through a slow, boring end?"

Of course, Medic had to be that 'nice'...

But he was right, delaying the inevitable only made Scout suffer more and more. Demoman had to take a decision: should he take the boy out of Respawn reach an execute him, or spare his life and let him Respawn and hope that the machine would fix any change on his body?

"Right, Doc..."

Demoman noticed that the body under his grip was slowing down in everything. His eyes were closed and he was busy trying to keep a steady breathing. The older man prepared his sword, pointing it at Scout's chest where his heart was, and in one quick movement gave the boy a quick death. Even as the body was fading away, Demoman Kept the sword in place, looking down at the floor stained with blood. He felt confused, lost, angry but over all, worried. He had a rule to execute, yet he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not with Scout.

Medic kept his gaze on Demoman, his mind also in a thinking procedure, but not in the same way. They had lost a teammate, who probably was still in BLU Spy's hands. They had to go and take their Pyro back, so he shook Demoman's shoulder, getting impatient.

"Herr Demoman, I'm afraid we still have something to do, so lets get Sco..."

Demoman cut him by raising a hand.

"Lets leave the lad out of this one. We can go by ourselves back in there same way we did before"

Medic made a face, not really wishing to repeat the whole exploding way to get to a second floor window, but made no comment. Demoman looked towards Sniper, who was standing away from them.

"Will you help us get Pyro back?"

Sniper looked down. His secret had been revealed, but they had come for him when that BLU spook took him. The least he could do was return the favor. He nodded back at Demoman, and that was all the man needed to stand and get his sword.

"That son of a frog will pay..."

...

Pyro was still in the same room, in the exact same spot he was before Spy summoned his shadows, but his team mates weren't with him. Well that wasn't alright. It looked around, trying to find the door it and scout used to get in, when it found Spy sitting on the chair, looking all smug and stupid...as always. Pyro frowned under the mask; that man wasn't nice nor kind, and he had hurt his friend, specially Scout. The masked man looked back at him.

"Oh mon frère, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you. In fact, we will leave as soon as possible. Trust me, there's so much I can teach you..."

Pyro gave it a thought...and then it shook it's head, while mumbling in a quite clear 'no way', declining the offer. Spy frowned; his plan was to get his sibling out of there and together live as they were supposed to live: predators who ate humans souls. But for some reason, his sibling wasn't cooperating.

"Maybe you have your doubts in eating a human soul because you're half human...a pity, but a thing that you can get over it with time and training"

Pyro kept his ground, shaking it's head againd and again, ending any kind of negotiation. Spy sighed, clearly tired of that comedy, standing up and going towards Pyro.

"You clearly don't realize what the real situation is: you think that just because that brat accepted you everyone will? Of course NOT" His calm façade was falling apart "they won't tolerate you, as you're one of their natural predators. They'll always fight you no matter what, they'll hate you over everything else, and if given the chance, they'll kill you, burn you, and make everything in their hands to make like you never existed!"

Pyro had to take a few steps back, on one side because of the things the man was saying; on the other because he was getting a bit tooo close for its taste. Soon its back found the wall behind, stopping it on the spot. Looking back to find the wall was more of an automatic reaction, and when Pyro looked in front of itself again, it found Spy almost on the face. The BLU was giving him a deadly glare, as if trying to make everything he said sink in as much as possible. Still, Pyro's mind was wandering about how his team was doing. It didn't have time for this arrogant baby to keep it away from the job, no way.

Even if everything he said was probably true.

Pyro had had a hard life, hidding from everyone because of its condition: being half human half Dreamcatcher wasn't easy at all, since the shadows would move on their own once puberty hit, and it was really frustrating to try and control them properly. Still, its mother never left its side: she always said that with darkness comes light as well; there's no shadow with no light, and Pyro believed those words every single second of its life: while spreading rainbows to everyone; while giving everyone candies so they could smile; while making sure to play with every single person it met in life; when happiness was all Pyro wanted to give.

"Well? You have no other option, as you can see"

Pyro looked up at Spy, who took a small step back to give it some room. Well, that blue bug wasn't going to stop pestering it, so major actions had to be done.

Slowly, Pyro took the mask up a bit, on revealing its mouth, and with a voice as clear as the day, it said:

"In your dreams, you psycho"

That took Spy offguard, and Pyro got those precious seconds to put its mask back on and melt into its own shadow, trying to get to the window. As it was about to reach it, another set of shadows trapped it, leaving its body paralyzed inside its own shadows. Pyro tried to break free form its own prison, but Spy kept the grip firmly.

"So you won't join me because what? Major plan? Humans gave you a lollipop? Well, if I can't have you...then nobody will"

Pyro started feeling a strong pressure, like its own shadows were trying to crush everything in that tiny space. The firebug had to escape, it had to make sure everyone was okay and with rainbows and lollipops and candies and...

'Where is darkness there is also light'

All of sudden, Pyro's core started glowing, the yellow light quickly going through the body towards the limbs in a beautiful pattern that looked like small flames. Pyro found it so beautiful it didn't notice that the light was spreading everywhere inside the shadows as well. Spy didn't expect it either, and at some point he had to shield his eyes with an arm in order to protect them from the bright light that was coming from his sibling. One by one his shadows started to release their grip, and the pattern covered all of Pyro's shadows, turning them into a bright, yellow light.

Spy's eyes widened. He knew what was going on, but he would have never thought that kind of sixth sense still existed.

"A Traveler..."

Before he could react, the yellow light flew out of the window like an arrow, leaving him alone in the room.

...

"WOW! Bloody hell, what's that?!"

The three men stopped running towards the BLU base when they saw the glowing yellow arrow going through the air with no effort, so fast that looked like a shooting star. Both Sniper and Medic looked at it with awe, but Demoman felt like he just won the lottery. He knew what was that, and it was very lucky to have it nearby. Now the question was: who was that Traveler?

His answer came quickly as the arrow landed in front of them with a small explosion, leaving the ground shinning in yellow little sparks, while Pyro stood in the center of it. Sniper and Medic's mouth could have touched the floor if they weren't attached to their skull.

"Bloody hell Pyro! You're a Traveler! What else are you lad?!" said Demoman while chuckling.

Pyro shrugged and hugged him. Then it hugged Medic and Sniper, who still were trying to process what just happened.

"Okay lads, I think we need some time to calm down. Lets get back into the base"

Pyro took Demoman's hand, jumping all the way back to RED base. Sniper just shrugged it off with a chuckle, and Medic decided that night was falling, and he had enough for one day, so he followed the rest of the small group. Once inside, Pyro gestured to Demoman, asking with mumbles where Scout was. Demoman smile turned into a frown, and looked towards the Respawn's room. Pyro followed his gaze, and upong seeing the door to Respawn it went towards the room. Carefully opening the door, Pyro looked inside followed by Demoman, Sniper and Medic piling up almost entirely on its back, with worried expressions on their faces.

What they found left them surprised. Right in the center of the room was Scout, looking at them shocked as well and quite lost. Pyro was the first in, hugging him with one of its nearly but not exactly crushing hugs. Scout's silence went towards a very loud 'OMGOSHWHATTHEHECKWHATAREYOUDOING?!', to which Pyro replied with a happy mumble before setting the boy back onto the safe floor. Medic got in the room as well, studying the boy carefully while Sniper went closer to him.

"Oi mate, you gave us quite the scare back there!"

Scouts looked at the taller man.

"Says who got himself kidnapped by that froggy spook!"

Sniper chuckled at that, and put a hand on Scout's shoulder.

"If I knew this was gonna escalate this much..."

Scout shrugged, but didn't get away from the touch.

"Nah, it's okay man, everything went okay in the end, right?"

Sniper was about to answer when Demoman coughed a bit to make himself be noticed. Both Sniper and Scout looked at him and received a gesture that, at least to Sniper and Medic clearly meant that he wanted to have some time alone with the boy.

"Of course, Herr Demoman"

Taking Sniper and Pyro by the shoulder with promises of having a lots of experiments on them, they left the room. Demoman watched them leave, and then his gaze fell on Scout, who realized he was in big trouble and, like a kid, lowered his eyes to the floor.

"I screwed up again, right?"

Demoman crossed his arms, saying nothing, which made Scout feel even more nervous.

"Look, I know I should have contacted you, but Snipes made me promise to not tell a soul, and he already knew about me, and I didn't want you to know that I slipped and...what I'm trying to say is-"

"I don't care lad"

Scout's words were cut by that cold sentence. He felt his heart stop for a moment, his blood run cold and his guilt build up in his chest. He had done wrong again, but that solved the problem anyways, right? They had Pyro and Sniper back, right?

Demoman sighed tiredly, running a hand through his face and head.

"I thought I made it clear"

Scout's shoulders went down in defeat: there was no way he could get out of this one without a punishment. Even if he didn't have to follow Demoman, the man was the only guide he had through the whole sixth sense thing, so he had at least to follow the rules, and he was breaking a lot of them already. Still, he didn't have to follow those rules, he could walk away if he wanted, but something inside him told otherwise. Well, might as well say all the charges straight out.

"Yeah, and I went on my own...well, with Pyro, but that put him in danger as well, and I didn't know yet he could do that amazing stuff he does. And I tried to fight the BLU spook on my own, I tried to help someone, like..." his eyes started to fail him in holding back tears. Man was he pathetic "like you and Medic do! You always have the answer to everything, and the Doc...well, he does amazing stuff! He sent that bastard back to BLU with a kick on every single part of his body, and you have that cool sword and green eye and shield, and..." he was trying to hold back sobs, but failing terrible at it "all I can do is look for lights! I can't attack or counter attack or do anything, I can just stand there and find shit! I can't even defend myself! That's how pathetic I am! I'm so freaking useless! And I wanted to change that, but..." he ran a hand over his eyes, trying to clean the tears that weren't stopping by any chance "but I screwed up, AGAIN! Big surprise! So there, you have it: I'm f*cking useless! You happy now?! The amazing Scout admits he's useless and can't do crap on his own!"

Scout looked at Demoman angrily, not with the man in front of him but with himself. He had tried to show off a strenght he never had, only to not be treated like a kid, but his power was only to find things, not to fight. He realized he was born to be a passive man on the side of the events, while everyone else did the job and the fighting. Maybe that's what he had to do: step aside and stop being a bother to everyone...

He looked at the floor in pure defeat, his arms falling at his sides, all his strenght leaving him in the blink of an eye. His mind was blank now that everything came out with such blunt force, and he felt even more pathetic by crying in front of Demoman. Not daring to look up at him, he kept his gaze on the floor, for now the most interesting thing in the room.

Demoman, on his side, took everything Scout launched his way. In all the years he had been in RED he would have never expected for Scout to snap and say his real thoughts out loud, instead of barking about how awesome he was, which took him by surprise. Scout was exactly like him when he was an apprentice: he too wanted to fight and be useful, but his sixth sense, the Shielder, never gave him an actual power to fight anything, only to cower behind a magic wall made of green patterns. His mentor taught him how to use it against the enemy by doing something almost no Shielder had done before: launch the shield against the enemy and trap him.

But now it was him the one who was in the mentor's role, and the boy in front of him needed his guidance...no, he needed someone who could tell him he wasn't useless, that he was needed and they appreciate what he did for them. His mind didn't form any words but a simple gesture. He went towards Scout without saying anything and embraced his slim form in a comforting hug, or at least he was trying to do it that way. That caught Scout offguard, who at first didn't know how to react. He only had been hugged by his mother and brothers, but never by someone outside his family. That was the last thing he expected coming from his teammates, but for some odd reason, he didn't mind it one bit.

He should have been pushing the man away for looking so gay, but his answer instead was returning the embrace while his frustration, sadness and anger came out in muffled sobs against the other man's chest.

Demoman smiled at that while patting the boy's back. He wasn't expecting that reaction, in fact, he expected the boy to just stand there and be hugged, but the outcome was more than welcome. When he felt Scout had relaxed a bit, he broke the embrace, keeping both hands on the boy's shoulder, and looked at him in the eyes, so his words would get in the kid's brain.

"I don't want you to think or say out loud that you're useless and pathetic, you hear me lad? Because you're none of those things, in fact, you have an amazing ability: none of us can see more than the human eye, but you? You could find the damn needle in the bloody field. You can find anything or anyone, and you have helped us that way. Yes, you may not be able to fight with your sixth sense, but you're the only one who knows where the attacks come from even before they reach us"

Scout listened to every word with attention, and Demoman could see his brain was registering everything and keeping it.

"You may be the loudest thing I ever found in this planet, and I'm glad that you are, specially when yours is the voice that will alert us all and protect from enemies"

Scout looked away, smiling a bit and rubbing his arm. He clearly wasn't used to receive good feedback.

"Just make sure to not put yourself through any danger, alright? We need you in the team, okay?"

Scout looked at him, still smiling, and nodded. Demoman smiled back and patted him on the shoulder.

"Say, are you as hungry as I am? I'm starving and very thirsty!"

The boy touched his belly before nodding, with a 'yeah, a lot'. They both went out of the door only to find Pyro and Sniper standing behind it. Pyro inmediately tried to look everywhere but the pair and Sniper shoved his hands into his pants pockets, clearly ashamed of being found out eavesdropping. His attention, however, got back in a second, worried with something.

"Don't you think we should...well, try and do something with the spook?"

Demoman dismissed the worries gesturing with his hand to calm the Australian

"Don't worry lad, he's a Dreamcatcher, not stupid. Now we have five sixth senses on our side he won't do something as idiotic as to attack us. By the way, Pyro! You're a Traveler!"

Pyro shrugged, but soon started making gestures to narrate his side of the story as they all went towards the kitchen. Medic soon followed them, coming out of his infirmary alone, since the other two didn't want to accompany him, talking about the possibilities of the amazing transportation Pyro could provide or the amazing healing skills from Sniper. They had a calm dinner, chatting and laughing with the rest of the team, who didn't know what was really going on but followed their fun anyways.

The next day's battle BLU fought without a Spy.


	12. Author's note

Hello!

First of all, sorry for not updating before. I was in the final stage of my studies, so yeah...

Second, I've decided to close this fic as 'complete' because the main enemy was defeated, so the story, at least for this part, is completed.

 **That means the nest part will come in a new story**. This way i know how to continue: new titles, new story, but where we left, more or less.

Thanks for reading, see you all soon.


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